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CHATS ON 
COSTUME 


"tw roCTivsX 
















CHATS 

ON COSTUME 


WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD, R.E. 

ii 

AUTHOR OF “THE TREATMENT OF DRAPERY IN ART,” “THE 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN,” “A HANDBOOK OF ETCHING,” 
“STUDIES IN PLANT FORM,” ETC., ETC. 


WITH 117 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING 35 LINE DRAWINGS 

BY TPIE AUTHOR 



NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


1906 

























1 396 N 

9 JUL 1953 



(A// rights resei'ved.) 










PREFACE 


Needless to say the present work is far from 
exhausting the subject of costume, which extends, 
indeed, over the whole field of history. For reasons 
of space, neither ecclesiastical nor military costume is 
touched upon. The book makes no pretensions to 
being anything more than what its title suggests— 
a series of chats upon a subject which fills a con¬ 
siderable place in the minds of, at any rate, the 
larger half of the community. 

While many works germane to the subject of 
costume have, of necessity, been here largely drawn 
upon in the way of quotation, there will, at the same 
time, be found a certain proportion of what may be 
described as fresh material, the result of the author’s 
acquaintance with the subject in his individual 
practice as an artist. Indeed, the subject of dress 
is, or should be, an artistic matter; it was so in 
the past, and it will again, in the very near future, 
come to be recognised as one of the Decorative 
Arts, requiring artistic knowledge, and some per¬ 
ception of the fundamental laws of Design. 

The author’s thanks are particularly due to 
Mr. J. S. Sargent, R.A., for his kind permission to 
reproduce his portrait of Miss Ellen Terry. 









VoVi COTTES CEl/iApEM 
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Bis OVO tVSTRA VIPty!S ET-VITA QWVTTVORAVIMOS: VWUi IVS HCIA I/IVLU PIETATE-SEO'MDVS 
TALV-tVlIACI DVX'. CVtUt^VS ERAT . SE VETER.VM DOCVIT tAVIMBVS tSSE PABXM. , 

ASPtClS EXAHO;^ VIVEMTIS iMAOiHtS V^BRAM- IMytOCVAAA VlTyt DECORAT- SAPfEV1Tl.A- lAVnEASl 
/vvoKES ET VfTAM lIVUA. lABPlLA REtTRT PWECfpvE-m cHRffTVM I/IOH Jtvw^TA UDESl 

TOT IWBIW VlRTVTE svai SiBJ RIXiVTA FAHAVlT-_OVOO Si VlTA-MOVyt POTVUSET lKESSE TRBEtJ^ I 

GVOT-AAODO THEVTOIrtiDOS MVltVS m OR6EPlAC«, QVOD PErEIttSA^lMVAvrORASA IATVBAFW- ^ 

H f H Ricvs ALOECREVER SVZATl ePi FAQ EBAT- 

Anno ' /A - D • XL • 


WILLIAM, DUKE OF JULIERS AND CLEVES 

Bv Aldegreve7, 





























CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE . . r 


LIST 

OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

• 

9 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

• 

15 

CHAT 




L 

A GENERAL SURVEY 

• 

17 

11. 

THE TUNIC 

• 

59 

III. 

THE MANTLE 

• 

81 

IV. 

THE DOUBLET AND HOSE 

• 

109 

V. 

THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT. 

• 

133 

VI. 

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE 

CRINOLINE 

157 

VII. 

COLLARS AND CUFFS 

• 

179 

VIII. 

HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 

. 

203 

IX. 

THE DRESSING OF THE HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, 



AND BEARD 

• 

235 

X. 

BOOTS, SHOES, AND OTHER 

COVERINGS FOR 



THE FEET 

. 

279 


INDEX 


7 


302 






LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Portrait of Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, by 
J. S. Sargent, R.A. . , . Frontispiece 

Horned Head-dress : Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, 

1439 • • • • • . • Title-page 

PAGE 

Duke of Juliers and Cleves (Aldegrever) . . 6 

Chat I.—A General Survey. 

Heading . . . , . . *19 

The Comte d’Artois and Mademoiselle Clothilde . .21 

Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham . . -23 

Ludovicus Rex, by Thackeray . . . -27 

Travelling in a Horse-litter (from a Fourteenth Century MS.) 31 
William III. . . . . . . .35 

Queen Mary . . . . ... -39 

Caricature : Pig Walking upon Stilts (Harleian MS.) . 43 

Caricature : Winged Devil (Cotton MS.) . . -43 

Duchess of Ancaster (after Hudson) . . . -47 

Damask in Silk and Gold (Saracenic) . . *50 

Venetian Fabric (Thirteenth Century) . . • 5 ^ 

London Promenade Dress, 1836 . . . *55 

Chat IL—The Tunic. 

Tunic, Petticoat, and Girdle (Jutland) . . .62 

Hunefer and his Wife (“ Book of the Dead,” c. b.c. 1370) . 63 

9 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


lO 

Chat II. —The Tunic {continued). 

PAGE 

A Priest Burning Incense (“ Book of the Dead ”) . . 65 

Plan of the Tunic . . . . . .66 

The Tunic (Hope’s “ Costume of the Ancients ”) . . 67 

Greek Figure (Ibid.) . . . . . .70 

Greek Figure (Ibid.) . . . . . -71 

Treuthe’s Pilgryme atte Plow (Trinity College, Cambridge) 75 
Anglo-Saxon Dress (Eighth Century) ’ . . • 


Chat III.— The Mantle. 


Heading : The Imperial Coronation Mantle at Vienna 
Plan of the Toga ...... 

The Toga (Hope’s “ Costume of the Ancients”) 

Statue of Queen Matilda at Rochester 
Lord Burleigh (National Portrait Gallery) . 

Lodowick, Duke of Richmond and Lennox . 

Portion of the Picture of the Miracle of St. Bernard, 
Perugia ....... 

Prince Henry, eldest son of James 1 . 

Earl of Rochester (National Portrait Gallery) 

Duke of Buckingham . . . . . 


83 

86 

87 

91 

93 

97 

99 

103 

105 

T07 


Chat IV.— The Doublet and Hose. 

Heading: Italian Cassone (Fifteenth Century) . .111 

Figure by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Perugia . . -113 

Paris on Mount Ida (Hope’s “Costume of the Ancients”) . 115 
Anglo-Saxon Retainer (G. W. Rhead) . . .116 

Knightly Pastimes : Hawking, 1575 . . . 119 

Sir Thomas Gresham (National Portrait Gallery) . .121 

Philip 11 . of Spain (National Portrait Gallery) . . 123 

Henry, Prince of Wales ..... 125 
An Exquisite (from Jacquemin) .... 129 
Philippe de Vendome . . . . *131 





L IS T OF IL L US TRA T/ONS I I 

Chat V.—The Kiktle or Petticoat. 

PAGE 

The Close-fitting Jacket, temp. Edward III. (from 
Viollet le Due) . . . . . .137 

A Lady of Basle (Holbein) ..... 139 

The Children of Charles I. . . . . .143 

Miss Lewis ....... 1^.5 

The Gamut of Love (Watteau) . . . .147 

Madame de Mouchy . . . . . .151 

Walking Dress, 1810 . . . . . .152 

Promenade Costume, 1833 . . . . .154 

Paris Evening Dress, 1833 . . . . .155 


Chat VI.—The Rise amd Fall of the Crinolixe. 

Heading : P'igure from Jacquemin .... 159 

Queen Charlotte (after Gainsborough) . . . i6r 

Queen Elizabeth ...... 163 

James 1 . and his Queen, Anne of Denmark . . . 165 

Festal Dress, Otaheite ..... 167 

Mary Queen of Scots and Darnlcy .... 169 

“ Don’t be afraid, my dear ! ” . . . . 171 

King and Mrs. Baddeley . . . . -173 

The Crinoletta Disfigurans {Puuch) .... 177 

/ 

Chat VH.—Collars axd Cuffs. 

Henrietta, Marquise d’Entragues . . . .182 

Henry IV. of France . . . . . .185 

The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia . . . .187 

Son of the Painter Dirck de Vries . . . .191 

Charles 1 . in three views . . . . -193 

Cravats . . • • • • -199 











12 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Chat VIII. —Hats, Caps, and Bonnets. 


PAGE 

Heading ; Fools in a Morris Dance .... 205 

Mrs. Anne Warren (after Romney) . . . • 207 

Hunting Hat, Orcagna, Cainpo Santo, Pisa . . .210 

Hunting Hat (Ibid.) ...... 210 

Figure with Long Net-caul (G. W. Rhead) . . .212 

Hat, Fra Angelico, Florence. ... • • 213 

Hat (Ibid.) . . . . . • .213 

Heart-shaped Head-dress ..... 216 

Horned Head-dress . . . • • .216 

Francis Bacon . . . . . .219 

Thomas Killigrew . . . . • .221 

The Development of the Pot Hat .... 223 

Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex . . . 225 

Letitia Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon . . . 228 

Anne Day ....... 229 

Two of the Wigginses (Gillray) .... 230 

Parisian Head-dresses for 1812 . . . -231 

Fool’s Cap of Leather, German (S.K.M.) . . . 233 


Chat IX. —The Dressing of the Hair, Moustachios, 


AND Beard. 

Heading : Comb (Italian, Fourteenth Century) . . 237 

Assyrian Bas-relief ...... 238 

Bearded Bacchus (Hope’s “ Costume of the Ancients ”) . 239 

Greek Head-dresses (Ibid.) ..... 241 

Roman Head-dresses (Ibid.) . . . . 243 

Head-dress from Viollet le Due (Fifteenth Century) . 248 
A Painted Face (Roxburghe Ballads) . . . 251 

Wig, Egyptian, B.c. 1500 (British Museum) . . 254 

Beau Fielding ...... 257 

Hyacinthe Rigaud ...... 259 

Ridiculous Taste ; or. The Lady’s Absurdity . . 261 

The French Lady in London .... 263 





LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


13 


Chat IX.—The Dressing of the Hair, Moustachios, 

AND Beard [continued). 

PAGE 

Head-dress (from Jacquemin) .... 264 

Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, and the Dauphin . . 269 

A Reigning Monarch ..... 272 

Philip IV. of Spain ...... 273 

Chat X.—Boots, Shoes, and other Coverings for the 
Feet. 

Heading : Shoes (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) . 281 
Clog or Patten ...... 282 

Roman Sandals (Hope’s “ Costume of the Ancients ”) . 285 

Sandals of Italian Peasantry ..... 286 

Lords John and Bernard Stuart .... 287 

Shoes, French (Fifteenth and Seventeenth Centuries) . 290 
Shoes, German (Sixteenth Century) .... 291 

Shoes (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Musee de 
Cluny) . . . . . . .293 

Carved Wooden Shoe, French (Seventeenth Century) . 294 
Shoe, Dutch Officer of Guards, 1662 . . . 296 

Shoe of a Musketeer, 1697 ..... 296 

Top Boot, Louis XIIL, 1611 ..... 297 

Top Boot, Comte de Soissons, 1628 .... 298 

Bravoes (Martin Schongauer) .... 299 










BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 

Barclay : Ship of Fools of the World, 1508. 

Bell's Fashionable Magazine, 1812. 

Bulwer : Pedigree of the English Gallant. 

Carlyle, T. : Sartor Resartus ; French Revolution. 

Caxton : The Four Sons of Aymon. 

Chaucer. 

English Costume from Pocket-books, 1799. 

Eginhart : Life of Charlemagne, 1619. 

Fairholt : Costume in England, 1896. 

Froissart’s Chronicles, H. N. Humphreys, 1855. 

Gregory of Tours : History of the Franks. 

Gosson, Stephen : Schoole of Abuse, 1579. 

Harding’s Chronicle, 1543. 

Holme, Randal : Notes on Dress, c. 1660. 

Hope, T. : Costume of the Ancients. 

Jonson, Ben : Plays. 

John de Meun 
William de Lorris 
Knight of La Tour Landry, 1371, Caxton. 

Lydgate, Monk of Bury : Poems. 

Le Blanc, H., Esq. : The Art of Tying the Cravat, 1828. 

Paris, Matthew^ 

Piers Plowman : Pierce Ploughman’s Vision. 

Planche : British Costume, 1874 J Cyclopaedia of Costume, 1877 

15 


j Romance of the Rose. 



i6 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Kacinet : Costume. 

Roxburghe Ballads, c. 1686. 

Statutes : Henry III., Henry VHI. 

Stothard, C. : Monumental Effigies, 1877. 

Strutt : Dress and Habits of the English People, 1842. 

Stubbes : Anatomy of Abuses. 

Stow, John : Chronicle, 1615. 

Stewart, J. : Plocacosmos, or the Whole Art of Hairdressing, 1782. 
Viollet le Due : Dictionnaire raisonne du mobilier Fran(;ais, 

1858-75* 

Wright, T. : Caricature and History of the Georges, 1868. 

William of Malmesbury. 


I 

A 

GENERAL 

SURVEY 


o 


17 


“You see two individuals, one dressed in fine Red, the other in 
coarse threadbare Blue : Red says to Blue : ‘ Be hanged and anato¬ 
mised ; ’ Blue hears with a shudder, and (O wonder of wonders !) 
marches sorrowfully to the gallows; is there noosed-up, vibrates his 
hour, and the surgeons dissect him, and fit his bones into a skeleton 
for medical purposes. How is this; or what make ye of your 
Nothing can act but where it is ? Red has no physical hold of 
Blue, no clutch of him, is nowise in contact with him : neither are 
those ministering Sheriffs and Lord-Lieutenants and Hangmen and 
Tipstaves so related to commanding Red, that he can tug them hither 
and thither ; but each stands distinct within his own skin. Neverthe¬ 
less as it is spoken so it is done; the articulated Word sets all hands 
in action; and Rope and Improved-drop perform their work. 

“ Thinking reader, the reasoti seems to me twofold : First, that man 
is a Spirit, and bound by invisible bonds to All Men ; secondly, that 
he wears Clothes, which are the visible emblems of that fact. Has 
not your Red hanging-individual a horsehair wig, squirrel-skins and a 
plush-gown ; whereby all mortals know that he is a Judge?—Society, 
which the more I think of it astonishes me the more, is founded 
upon Cloth.” 

Carlyle, Sartor Resartus. 


i8 



CHATS ON COSTUME 


I 

A GENERAL SURVEY 

That singular clothes-philosopher, Diogenes Teufels- 
drockh, whose revolutionary theories upon the subject 
of the “vestural tissue” first burst upon an astonished 
world some seventy odd years ago, has, with charac¬ 
teristic emphasis, drawn attention, amongst other 
things, to the fact that man is the only animal who 
is not provided with some Nature-made protection 
against the elements—a protection either of fur, 
feather, hide, or what not. Bounteous Nature, how¬ 
ever, always kind, who never withholds a good 
without affording ample compensation, has en¬ 
dowed man with that fertile brain and cunning hand 
whereby he may convert hide into leather, wool of 
sheep into cloth, web of worm into silk, flax and 
cotton into linen of various kinds, and so restore 


♦ 


19 





20 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


that balance of endowment without which man 
would be at the mercy of every wind that blew. 

The uses of clothes, or costume—the words may 
be here taken as synonymous—may be said to be 
threefold : first, for decency, which was their first and 
apparently only use, as we may assume that in Eden 
the sun always shone; secondly, for comfort and 
protection ; thirdly, for beauty and adornment. 

First, then, for decency. That is sufficiently clearly 
established if we may accept the Mosaic account of 
the world’s juvenescence: “And the eyes of both of 
them were opened, and they knew that they were 
naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made 
themselves aprons “ Unto Adam also and to his 
wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and 
clothed them.” I This habit of observance of the 
decencies of life appears to be common to all nations. 
No people or tribe, however primitive the civilisation, 
but makes some sort of provision in this respect. 
The Veddas of Ceylon make girdles of leaves, which 
gives them a strangely fantastic appearance. We 
learn from the accounts of travellers in Central 
Africa that “ clothing, though extremely simple, 
consisting of a little grass-cloth, ornaments of 
feathers, fur, shells, glass and metal beads, are worn, 
and the skin is decorated by stripes of paint or an 
extensive series of cicatrices.” Among the aborigines 
of the Malay Peninsula (Sakais) “ the men wear a 
strip of bark-cloth twisted round the waist and 
drawn between the legs. The women sometimes 
wear small cotton-cloth petticoats (sarongs) pur- 
* Gen. iii. 7, 21, 



THE COMTE d’aRTOIS AND MADEMOISELLE CLOTHILDE. 









22 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


chased from the Malays, and the men occasionally 
adopt Chinese trousers ; but in their native forests, 
however, none of these luxuries are indulged in.” 

Secondly, for comfort and protection. The climatic 
influence on dress is, and must necessarily be, con¬ 
siderable. This is well illustrated by the well-known 
fable of “ The Wind and the Sun.” The more 
boisterously the wind blows, the more closely the 
man enwraps himself with his cloak ; the more 
fiercely the sun shines, the more the man divests 
himself of raiment;^ but between the skins of the 
Laplander, fashioned by the help of a thorn or a 
fishbone for a needle, and the sinews of the animal 
for thread, and the light gossamer clothing of the 
countries of the East there is a vast range, the 
extent of which, indeed, is almost boundless. Climate 
not only determines the amount or degree of warmth 
or otherwise, but also, as in architecture, influences 
its character both as to form and colour. Moreover, 
clothes are an index to the character or temper of an 
individual or nation. “ What meaning lies in Colour ! 
If the Cut betoken intellect and talent, so does the 
Colour betoken temper and heart.”^ 

' This fable is so quaintly told in Lyly’s “ Euphues” (1580), 
that it may be worth while to repeat it. A gentleman walk¬ 
ing abroard, the Winde thought to blowe of(f) his cloake, 
which with great blastes and blustering striving to vnloose it, 
made it to stick faster to his backe, for the more the winde 
encreased the closer his cloake clapt to his body, then the 
Sunne, shining with his boat beames began to warme this 
gentleman, who waxing som(e)what faint in this faire weather, 
did not on(e)ly put of(f) his cloake but his coate, which the 
Wynde perceiuing, yeelded the conquest to the Sunne.” 

* Carlyle, “ Sartor Resartus.” 



CHARLES HOWARD, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM. 


Engraved by Thomas Cockson, 










































24 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Thirdly, for beauty and adornment—and it is with 
this latter aspect that this work is mainly concerned. 
That clothes should be beautiful is an axiom which, 
one would think, might readily be accepted ; that 
clothes have been beautiful is a fact which cannot be 
denied. (It is only during the present utilitarian age 
that the aesthetic principle has been lost sight of.) 
That clothes might again be beautiful, without suffer¬ 
ing any loss on the score of utility, is also unquestion¬ 
able. To attempt to follow the whims and vagaries 
of that jade. Fashion, through all her endless diver¬ 
sities and constant changes, would indeed be a 
Herculean task, and might well appal the boldest he 
(or she, for that matter) who would wield pen or 
pencil. 

The will-o’-the-wisp of Fashion is, however, a less 
capricious person than would appear at first sight. 
There is some method in her madness. Similar 
types, similar decorative motifs, appear and reappear 
through the centuries with the regularity of the 
changing seasons. The veracious chronicler may 
therefore take some comfort from this fact ; it 
lightens his burden, and makes his task less difficult 
than it would otherwise be. Moreover, dress, as in 
architectural form, to the careful student of decora¬ 
tive development, presents really less inherent variety 
than one would suppose ; historical accuracy is the 
favourite bugbear of pedants, and, while appreciating 
to the full the great distinctiveness of such periods as 
the Elizabethan, the Stuart, and the Georgian, there 
are certain primitive forms, certain leading character¬ 
istics, which are common to most periods, and which. 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


25 


like the poor, are always with us. One might hazard 
the contention that a painter would be perfectly safe 
in introducing a pot-hat and a pair of trousers at 
practically any period of the world’s history —nol in 
conjunction^ mind; no, that glorious consummation 
was reserved for this happy age of ours. The 
Greeks, however, as is well known, wore trousers. 
Some form of the trouser was worn by the lower 
classes at most periods of English history. Ben 
Jonson makes Peniboy junior walk in his “gowne, 
waistcoate, and trousesj expecting his tailor. Nay, 
do we not read in the Old Testament—in some Old 
Testaments, at any rate—that even Adam and Eve 
made themselves—ahem !—breeches ? As for the 
pot-hat, its origin is lost in the maze of antiquity. 
It crops up in its various developments at all sorts of 
odd times and periods. A fearsome variety of it is 
to be seen upon the head of Jan Arnolfini in Van 
Eyck’s picture in the National Gallery. It appears 
in Durer’s engravings and woodcuts, woolly, hairy 
structures, occasionally of abnormal height. It is 
perhaps not generally known that it occurs in the 
Raphael cartoons (“ Paul preaching at Athens ”). 
One would have imagined such a singular appear¬ 
ance as a pot-hat, in such surroundings, to have been 
evident at first sight. The reason it was not so was 
on account of its colour (vermilion). Had it been 
black, one would have spotted it at once; and this 
fact, when one comes to consider it, is a little sin¬ 
gular, since, if one were to march down Piccadilly 
some fine afternoon crowned in a vermilion pot-hat, 
methinks one would not altogether escape notice. 


26 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


There is, however, still another aspect of clothes 
which remains to be considered, i.e.^ their symbolism. 
It has been written, “ Manners maketh man.” It 
might also be written with even a still greater degree 
of truth, “ Clothes maketh man,” since clothes con¬ 
tribute so much to man’s dignity. Carlyle finds it 
difficult to imagine a naked Duke of Windlestraw 
addressing a naked House of Lords, and asks, very 
pertinently, “ Who ever saw any Lord my-lorded in 
tattered blanket fastened with a wooden skewer ? ” 
His King Toom-tabard (empty gown) reigning over 
Scotland long after the man John Baliol had gone ! 
His quaint conceit of a suit of cast clothes, meekly 
bearing its honours, without haughty looks or scornful 
gesture, has been imitated by Thackeray in his 
amusing illustration of “ Ludovicus Rex”—the 
“silent dignity” of “Rex” as represented by the 
suit of clothes, the forlorn appearance of Ludovicus, 
the magnificence of “ Ludovicus Rex,” all testify to 
the great importance and value of costume, as con¬ 
trasted with the relatively trivial character of the 
wearer. 

Who, then, shall dare to belittle the importance of 
costume ? or to affirm that character can rise superior 
to its environment? Our subject is one of the most 
significant which can be presented to the reader’s 
consideration. It provides one of the most curious 
and fascinating studies in the world. 

The materials upon which we base our knowledge 
of the dress of the earlier periods of the world’s 
history are necessarily scanty. For the Egyptian and 
Assyrian period we are dependent upon monumental 



• 

X 

UJ 

d: 


0 ) 

D 

O 

> 

o 

Q 

D 


From ** Paris Sketches. 




























































































































































28 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


inscriptions and carving, and the few papyri which 
have survived the ravages of time. For the Greek 
and Roman period, upon sculpture, pottery, and the 
written description of the more considerable authors. 
For the Byzantine, Frankish, and Gothic periods, 
upon mosaic, monumental effigies, and illuminated 
MSS. It is not until what may be called the age of 
the painter that we may be said to emerge into the 
broad light of day, and the pencils of Holbein, 
Rubens, and Vandyke make things clearer for us. 
The sumptuary laws, however, enacted at various 
periods, against excess in apparel and extravagance 
in dress, let in a flood of light on the manners and 
customs of the times, and in them will be found 
many curious and interesting details. The principal 
Acts are the following : 2 Edw. II. c. 4 ; 37 Edw. III. 
cc. 8, 14; 3 Edw. IV. c. i ; 22 Edw. IV. c. i ; 

I Hen. VHI. c. 14; 6 Hen. VHI. c. i ; 7 Hen. VHI. 
c. 6; 24 Hen. VHI. c. 13 ; i and 2 Phil, and Mary, 
c. 2 ; 8 Eliz. c. II. All these laws were repealed by 
an Act of i Jac. I. 

This grandmotherly legislation, which was never 
effective, always evaded and even defied, had a 
double object in view, first to induce habits of thrift 
amongst all classes of the people, and secondly on 
aesthetic grounds. 

In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Edward 
HI. (A.D. 1363), the Commons exhibited a complaint 
in Parliament against the general usage of expensive 
apparel not suited either to the degree or income 
of the people ; and an Act was passed by which the 
following regulations were insisted upon ; Furs of 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


29 


ermine and lettice, and embellishments of pearls, 
excepting for a head-dress, were strictly forbidden 
to any but the Royal Family, and nobles possessing 
upwards of 1,000 per annum. 

Cloths of gold and silver, and habits embroidered 
with jewellery, lined with pure miniver, and other 
expensive furs, were permitted only to knights and 
ladies, whose incomes exceeded 400 marks yearly. 

Knights whose income exceeded 200 marks, or 
squires possessing £200 in lands or tenements, were 
permitted to wear cloth of silver with ribands, girdles, 
&c., reasonably embellished with silver, and woollen 
cloth, of the value of six marks the whole piece ; but 
all persons under the rank of knighthood, or of less 
property than the last mentioned, were confined to 
the use of cloth not exceeding four marks the piece, 
and were prohibited wearing silks and embroidered 
garments of any sort, or embellishing their apparel 
with any ornaments of gold, silver, or jewellery. 
Rings, buckles, ouches, girdles, and ribands were 
forbidden them, and the penalty annexed to the 
infringement of this statute was the forfeiture of 
the dress or ornament so made or worn. 

In the reign of Henry IV. these laws were so little 
regarded that it was found necessary to revive them 
with considerable additions. It was enacted that— 
“ No man not being a banneret, or person of high 
estate,” was permitted to wear cloth of gold, of 
crimson, or cloth of velvet, or motley velvet, or large 
hanging sleeves open or closed, or gowns so long as 
to touch the ground, or to use the furs of ermine, 
lettice, or marten, excepting only “ gens d’armes 


30 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


quant ils sont armez.” Decorations of gold and 
silver were forbidden to all who possessed less than 
£200 in goods and chattels, or £20 per annum, 
unless they were heirs to estates of 50 marks per 
annum, or to ;^500 worth of goods and chattels. 

Four years afterwards it was ordained that no 
man, let his condition be what it might, should be 
permitted to wear a gown or garment cut or slashed 
into pieces in the form of letters, rose leaves, and 
posies of various kinds, or any such-like devices, 
under the penalty of forfeiting the same, and the 
offending tailor was to be imprisoned during the 
King’s pleasure. 

In the third year of the reign of Edward IV. an 
Act was promulgated by which cloth of gold, cloth 
of silk of a purple colour, and fur of sables were 
prohibited to all knights under the estate of lords. 
Bachelor knights were forbidden to wear cloth of 
velvet upon velvet, unless they were Knights of the 
Garter; and simple esquires, or gentlemen, were 
restricted from the use of velvet, damask, or figured 
satin, or any counterfeit resembling such stuffs, 
except they possessed a yearly income to the value 
of i^ioo, or were attached to the King’s Court or 
household. 

It was also forbidden to any persons who were not 
in the enjoyment of ^^40 yearly income to wear any 
of the richer furs ; also girdles of gold, silver, or 
silver-gilt were forbidden. 

No one under the estate of a lord was permitted 
to wear indecently short jackets, gowns, &c., 
mentioned by Monstrelet, or pikes or poleines to 



’ uimnwtum ^inw 




^eumtr d)tuaud)c>itnt^wi^^$Ckam 


TRAVELLING IN A HORSE LITTER. 

Frojn the MS. 118 Franfazs in the Bibliothcque Nationale 
{late Foizrteenth Centwy). 























32 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


his shoes and boots exceeding two inches in length. ■ 
No yeoman, or person under the degree of a yeoman, 
was allowed bolsters or stuffing of wool, cotton, or 
cadis in his purpoint or doublet under a penalty 
of six shillings and eightpence fine, and forfeiture 
awarded ; the unfortunate tailor making such short 
or stuffed dresses, or shoemaker manufacturing such 
long-toed shoes for unprivileged persons, being under 
the pain of cursing by the clergy for the latter offence, 
as well as the forfeit of twenty shillings—one noble) 
to the King, another to the cordwainers of London ,) 
and the third to the Chamber of London. 

It will readily be seen that these laws were 
necessarily the cause of great hindrance to trade, 
which was, indeed, not the least of the evils occasioned 
by these absurd laws. Richard Onslow, Recorder of 
London, 1565 (given in Ellis’s “Original Letters,” 
vol. ii.), describes an interview which he had with the 
civic tailors, who were puzzled to know whether they 
might “ line a slop-hose not cut in panes, with a lining 
of cotton stitched to the slop, over and besydes the 
linen lining straight to the leg.” 

The statutory laws, however, were not the on/j/ 
hindrance to trade, since it would appear that during 
the Plantagenet period dishonesty in trade was as rife 
as it is at the present time, and foreign competition 
as keen ; the conditions, however, were slightly 
different, the foreign merchants obtaining high prices 
for their goods, instead of dumping cheap goods into 
the country at low prices. The remedy was directed to 
the enforcement of greater honesty in trade dealings, 
rather than to fortify themselves behind tariff walls. 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


33 


It was enacted in the third year of the reign of 
Edward IV. c. i:—“ Firste, whereas many yeres 
paste & nowe at this daye, the workemanshyp of 
clothes & things requisite to the same, is & hath 
bene of such fraude disceite & falsite, that the sayde 
clothes in other landes & countreis, is had in small 
reputacyon, to the greate shame of this lande. And by 
reason thereof a great quantite of clothes of other 
strange landes be brought into this realme, & here 
solde at an highe & excessyve pryce, evydently 
shewynge thossens defaulte & falsyte of the maykynge 
of wollen clothes of this lande. Our soveraigne lorde 
the Kynge, for the remedy of the premisses, & to 
the preferment of such labours & occupacioris, which 
hath been used by the makynge of the sayde clothes, 
by thaduyse assent & request & auctoritie aforsayd, 
hath ordeyned & establysshed, that every hole wollen 
clothe called brodclothe, which shal be made & set to 
sale after the feaste of Saynt Peter called ad vincula, 
which shal be in the yere of our Lorde M.CCCC.LXV. 
after the ful waterynge & rackyng straynyng or 
tenturyng of the same redy to sale, shall holde & 
conteyne in length xxiiii yardes, & to every yarde an 
ynche, conteynynge the bredthe of a mannes ynche, 
to be measured by the creste of the same clothe. And 
i brede ii yardes, or vii quarters at the leaste wythyn 
the lystes. & if the clothe be longer in measure than 
xxiiii yardes & the ynches than the byer therof shall 
paye to the seller for for as moche as doth excede such 
measure of xxiiii yardes, after the rate of the measure 
above ordeyned. Also it is ordeined & establisshed 
by auctoritie of the sayd lordes, that all maner 

3 


34 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


clothes called streytes, to be made & put to sale 
after the same feaste, after the full watering & 
rackyng, streynynge or tenturynge therof redye to 
sale, shall holde & conteyne in lengthe xii yardes & 
the ynches, after the measure aforsaid, & in brede 
one yarde within the lystes. Also it is ordeyned & 
establysshed by thauctoritie aforsaid, that every clothe 
called kersey, to be made & put to sale after the 
sayde feaste, after the full waterynge & rackynge 
straynynge or tenturynge of the same redy to sale, 
shall holde & conteyne in lengthe xviii yardes & 
the ynches, as is aforsayd, & in brede one yarde & a 
nayle, or at the leaste one yarde within the lystes. 
& also it is ordeyned & establysshed, that every 
halfe clothe of every of the sayde hole clothes, 
streytes, & kerseys, shall kepe his measure in length 
& brede after the rate fourme & nature of his hole 
clothe aforsayde. & that no persone, whiche shall 
make or cause to be made any maner wollen clothe 
to sel after the said feaste shall medle or put in or 
upon the same cloth, nor the wolle, whereof the sayd 
clothe shall be made, any lambes wolle, flockes or 
corke in any maner, upon payne to forfayt xx.f. 
for every clothe or halfe clothe, wherein & wher- 
upon any such lambes wolle, flockes or corke shall 
be put or medled. The one halfe thereof to be 
to the Kyng, & the other halfe to hym that shall 
leyse the same clothe, & duely prove the same 
to be made contrarie to this ordinance, excepte that 
he shall chose to make of lambes wolle by itselfe 
without mynglyng with any other wolle. Excepte 
also that corke may be used in dyenge upon woded 



GU1IJELMU.S III, 

D.G. Angt.isl, 5 c o ri/i.F kanc i a<. 1 ImEiiN iaRex. 


WILLIAM III. 



36 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


wolle, & also in dyenge of all suche clothe, that 
is onely made of woded wolle, so that the same wolle 
& clothe be perfytly boyled & madered, except 
also that corke may be put upon clothe, whiche is 
perfectly boyled & madered ”—but enough of this. 
The sumptuary laws continued to be enacted against 
this, that, or the other abuse, or fancied abuse. If 
a new fashion sprung up, a brand new law would be 
immediately fashioned for the purpose of keeping 
it within bounds. It was to no purpose, however ; 
the sumptuary laws continued to be disregarded 
as heretofore. “ How often hath her majestie with 
the grave advice of her honorable Councell, sette 
downe the limits of apparell to every degree, & how 
soon again hath the pride of our harts overflowen the 
chanell! ” ^ 

It was the same with the satirists, whether of horned 
head-dresses or other extravagances ; Monk Lydgate 
might rave, might shout himself hoarse, but the 
women would have their horns. 

It was indeed inevitable that the vagaries of 
fashion and the love of fine feathers should become 
the favourite butt of the satirists, purists, and other 
persons who assumed the character of mentor. 
Among the most insistent of these were the priest¬ 
hood. St. Bernard thus admonishes his sister, 
perhaps with greater candour than politeness, on 
her visiting him, “well arraied with riche clothing, 
with perles and precious stones ” :— 

“ Suster, yet ye love youre bodi, by reson ye shuld 
beter love youre soule: wene ye not that ye displese 
* Stephen Gosson, “ The School of Abuse.” 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


37 


God and his aungels to see in you suche pompe and 
pride to adorn suche a carion as is youre body. . . . 
Whi thenke ye not that the pore peple that deyen for 
hungir and colde, that for the sixte part of youre gay 
arraye xl persones might be clothed, refresshed, and 
kepte from the colde ? . . . And thanne the ladi 
vvepte, and solde awey her clothes, and levid after 
an holy lyff, and had love of God, aungeles, and holy 
seintes, the whiche is beter thanne of the worldely 
pepille” (“ Knight of La Tour Landry,” 1371). 

The sister of St. Bernard, however, evidently 
lacked the power of repartee of St. Edith, daughter 
of King Edgar, who, though brought up in a convent 
at Wilton, and destined to the life of the cloister, 
nevertheless had a weakness for clothes which 
seemed too fine and gay for a nun. St. Ethelwold, 
who, it is clear, must have shared the opinions of 
St. Bernard upon the subject of finery, and ventured 
to upbraid her, received this crushing reply: “ God’s 
doom, that may not fail, is pleased only with con¬ 
science. Therefore I trow that as clean a soul may 
be under those clothes that are arrayed with gold 
as under thy slight fur-skins.” He was reminded 
also that St. Augustine had said that pride could 
lurk even in rags. This latter sally calls to mind 
the story of Diogenes spitting upon the floor of 
Plato’s house and exclaiming, “Thus I trample 
on the pride of Plato.” “ With greater pride, O 
Diogenes,” was the quiet rejoinder. 

Dowglas, the monk of Glastonbury, writing against 
the extravagances which were rife during the latter 
half of the reign of Edward III., says : “The English 


38 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


haunted so much unto the foly of strangers, that 
every year they changed them in diverse shapes 
and disguisings of clothing, now long, now large, 
now wide, now strait, and every day clothingges, 
new and destitute, and devest from all honesty of 
old arraye or good usage; and another time in 
short clothes, and so strait waisted, with full sleeves 
and tapetes of surcoats and hodes, over long and 
large, all so ragged and knib on every side, and 
all so shattered, and also buttoned, that I with 
truth shall say, they seem more like to tormentors 
or devils in their clothing, and also in their shoying 
and other arraye than they seemed to be like men.” 

The authors of the “ Roman de la Rose,” William 
de Lorris, who died in 1260, and John de Meun, who 
continued and finished the poem about 1304, are 
amongst the most severe of these satirists. In 
alluding to the unnecessary length of their trains, 
the author advises the ladies, if their legs be not 
handsome, nor their feet small and delicate, to wear 
long robes trailing on the pavement to hide them ; 
those having pretty feet are counselled to elevate 
their robes, as if for air and convenience, that all 
who are passing may see and admire. This has 
been imitated by Ben Jonson, who in his “Silent 
Woman” makes Truewit say:— 

“ 1 love a good dressing before any beauty o’ the 
world. Oh, a woman is then like a delicate garden ; 
nor is there one kind of it ; she may vary every 
hour ; take often counsel of her glass, and choose 
the best. If she have good ears, show them ; good 
hair, lay it out; good legs, wear short clothes ; a 



D.G. AMaxlit, Sbo£Iu% 


QUEEN MARY. 


40 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


good hand, discover it often ; practise any art to 
mend breath, cleanse teeth, repair eyebrows, paint, 
and profess it.” 

The author of the “ Roxburghe Ballads ” (“ A 
Woman’s Birth and Education ”) informs us that 
when Cupid first beheld a woman^— 


“ He prankt it up in Fardingals and Muffs, 

In Masks, Rebates, Shapperowns, and Wyers, 

In Paintings, Powd’rings, Perriwigs, and Cuffes, 

In Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French attires ; 

Thus was it born, brought forth, and made Love’s 
baby. 

And this is that which now we call a Lady.” 

Nor was it the fair sex only who were thus lam¬ 
pooned. The men also came in for their share, and 
were as much the objects of the satirist’s wrath as 
were the women :— 

“Your ruffs and your bands. 

And your cuffs at your hands. 

Your pipes and your smokes. 

And your short curtail clokes, 

Scarfes, feathers and swerdes. 

And their bodkin beards ; 

Your wastes a span long. 

Your knees with points hung 
Like morrice-dance bels 
And many toyes els.” 

Skelton, Elinor Rummin^ 1625. 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


41 


The Knight of La Tour Landry, writing towards 
the close of the fourteenth century, in order to deter 
his daughters from extravagance and superfluity of 
dress, recounts a story of a knight who, having lost 
his wife, applied to “an heremyte hys uncle” to know 
whether she was saved or not and how it “ stode with 
her.” The hermit, after many prayers, dreamed that 
he saw “ Seint Michelle & the develle that had her 
in a balaunce, & alle her good dedes in the same 
balaunce, & a develle & alle her evelle dedes in that 
other balaunce. & the most that grevid her was her 
good & gay clothing, & furres of gray menivere & 
letuse ; & the develle cried & sayde, Seint Michel, 
this woman had tenne diverse gownes & as mani 
cotes ; & thou wost welle lesse myghte have sufifised 
her after the lawe of God ; ... & he toke all her 
juellys and rynges, ... & also the false langage that 
she had saide ... & caste hem in the balaunce with 
her evelle dedes.” The “ evelle dedes passed the 
good, & weyed downe & overcame her good dedes. 
& there the develle toke her, & bare her away, & 
putte her clothes & aray brennyng in the flawme on 
her with the fire of helle, & kist her doune into the 
pitte of helle ; & the pore soul cried, & made 

moche sorughe & pite . . . but it boted not.” 

Lydgate, the famous monk of Bury, and one of 
the foremost poets of his time, was unwearying in 
his condemnation of the extravagances of dress, his 
pet aversion being the horned head-dresses which 
obtained during the York and Lancastrian period. 
In a “Ditty of Women’s Horns,” he unbosoms himself 
as follows :— 


42 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ Clerkys recorde, by gret auctoryte, ^ 

Hornes wer yove to bestys for dyfifence ; 

A thing contrarye to femynte, 

To be maad sturdy of resystence. 

But arche wives, egre in ther vyolence, 

Fers as tygres for to make affray 
They have despit, and ageyn concyence 
Lyst nat of pryde, then homes cast away.” 

But the most insistent of all the satirists was Philip 
Stubbes, who wrote his “Anatomy of Abuses” in the 
reign of Elizabeth. In lampooning the feminine 
habit of aping masculine dress, he says : “ The 
women have doublets and jerkins as the men have, 
buttoned up to the breast, and made with wings, 
welts, and pinions on the shoulder-points, as man’s 
apparel in all respects ; and although this be a kind 
of attire proper only to a man, yet they blush not to 
wear it.” 

Artists also, as well as writers, joined in the 
general chorus of condemnation of the extravagances 
of fashion. Strutt gives a cut from the MS. copy 
of Froissart in the Harleian Library, of a pig walk¬ 
ing upon stilts playing the harp, and crowned with 
the high steeple head-dress which prevailed during 
the reign of Edward IV. 

In the Cotton MS. (Nero, C4) there is an illustra¬ 
tion of a winged devil arrayed in a costume with 
elongated sleeves tied in knots, the prevailing fashion 
of the period. 

It must be confessed that the satirists were 
occasionally a little too severe in their strictures, for 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


43 


while doubtless extravagance prevailed at most 
periods—indeed, must always prevail—the dress of 
such a period as that of the Plantagenets, as well as 
that of Elizabeth, was sumptuous to a degree. In 
fact, it is difficult for us moderns, so surrounded as 
we are by commonness, cheapness, and vulgarity, to 
realise the extreme splendour of the Middle Ages, 
either as regards their dress or their surroundings. 
Plenty of extravagance there is at the present time. 



but no real magnificence, either as to invention or 
material. 

With respect to material, by far the most 
sumptuous fabric employed for purposes of adorn¬ 
ment in past times is undoubtedly cloth of gold. 
This truly regal fabric has been in use from the 
earliest periods. “ And they shall make the ephod 
of gold^ of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine 
twined linen, with cunning work. And the curious 
girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the 








44 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of 
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.” ^ 

It is recorded of the wife of the Emperor 
Honorius, who died about the year 400, upon the 
re-opening of her grave in 1544, the golden tissues 
which formed the shroud were melted, and amounted 
in weight to 36 lbs. 

About the body of the Frankish King Childeric, 
when his grave was discovered in 1653, were found 
numerous strips of pure gold, pointing to the fact 
that the body must have been wrapped in a mantle 
of golden stuff for burial. 

The sumptuary laws which were enacted at various 
periods of English history, regulating and restricting 
the wearing of this precious fabric to persons of 
estate, have already been referred to, and serve to 
show in what high estimation this fabric was held. 

It will readily be imagined that cloth of gold was 
necessarily costly. The Princess Mary (afterwards 
Queen), thirteen years before she came to the throne, 
“ Payed to Peycocke, of London, for xix yerds iii qrt 
of clothe of golde at xxxviijT. the yerde. xxxvij/f. 
xj’. v]dr and for “a yerde & dr qrt of clothe of 
silver xE. In later times the use of the pure gold 
thread was discontinued except for very costly 
garments, and tissues were made of silver-gilt or 
copper-gilt thread. The thin paper which we now 
know by the name of tissue paper was originally 
made for the purpose of being placed between the 
pieces of stuff to prevent tarnishing when laid by. 

Silk, like the sun, and so many other good things 
' Exodus xxviii. 6-8. 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


45 


comes to us from the “ sacred East.” The earliest 
mention of it is in Aristotle, who refers to the 
importation into the Western world of raw silk. 
Silken garments were brought to Rome from a 
very early period, but on account of their costliness 
were worn only by a very few. Heliogabalus was the 
first Emperor who wore silk for clothing. By the 
revised code of laws issued for the Roman Empire 
in 533 A.D., a monopoly of silk weaving was given to 
the Court, looms being set up in the imperial palace 
and worked by women. The raw material, however, 
had still to be brought from abroad. The story of 
the introduction of the silkworm into Constantinople 
will serve to show how jealously the secret of the 
rearing of the worm was kept by the peoples of the 
East. The eggs of the silkworm were brought, 
hidden in their walking staves, by two Greek monks, 
who had lived many years amongst the Chinese and 
learnt the process of rearing the worm, and who 
carried them to Constantinople and presented them 
to the Emperor. Very soon afterwards the Western 
world reared its own silk. 

Silk was known under different names at various 
periods, according to its colour, texture, or design. 
Samite, Samit, Examitum, is a six-threaded tissue, 
and consequently costly. The hand which grasped 
the sword Excalibur when it was thrown into the 
lake was clothed in white samite— 

“ Launcelot and the Queen were cledde 
In robes of a rich wede, 

Of samyte white, with silver shredde.” \ 


46 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Ciclatoun was a substance of light texture, and 
was used both for ecclesiastical purposes and for 
the more stately dresses of a secular character. 
Chaucer, in his “ Rime of Sire Thopas,” says:— 

“ Of Brugges were his hosen broun , 

His robe was of ciclatoun.” 

Cendal was a less costly fabric, and was also used 
largely in ecclesiastical vestments. 

Taffeta was a thin transparent textile, and was 
used, as well as cendal, during the Middle Ages for 
linings. 

Sarcenet also is a light webbed silk, and by degrees 
supplanted cendal. 

Satin was also used in the Middle Ages, and is 
mentioned by Chaucer in his “ Man of Lawe’s Tale,” 
but was not brought into general use until later. The 
beauties of the Court of Charles II., as pictured by 
Sir Peter Lely, are usually clad in satin. 

Velvet, that most sumptuous material, has always 
been held in high estimation on account of the 
richness of its texture and fold. It has always been 
used, since its introduction into the West, for robes 
of state and for the more sumptuous kind of dress. 
The place of its origin is not known, but it probably 
comes from China. 

In a letter preserved in the Record Office {circa 
1505) to Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, from 
his steward Killingworth (De la Pole had been 
indicted of homicide and murder, “ for slaying of a 
mean person in his rage and fury,” and had fled to 
Flanders), conveying excuses from some person un- 



DUCHESS OF ANCASTER (AFTER HUDSON) 










48 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


named, mentioned only as “your friend,” for not 
having communicated with De la Pole earlier, as 
he had hoped, to send him news from England, the 
writer continues :— 

“ For your gown he axked me howe many elles 
velvet wold serve you. I told hym xiiij Englishe 
yerdis, and then he saied, ‘ What lynyng thereunto ? ’ 
I answerde ‘ Sarcenet ’ by cause of the lest coste to 
helpe it forward. And he saide to me, ‘Wei, I shal 
see what I can doo therin.’ Soo, sir, if it please 
you to write to him in Duche, and thank him, and 
geve but oon worde therin towching your gown, I 
doubte not ye shal have hyt.” 

The patternings of woven brocades, damasks and 
other textiles afford an interest quite apart from 
mere utility, or the purpose for which they were 
intended to serve as an ornamental adjunct to dress, 
since by their means we are able to trace the great 
ornamental traditions to their original source in the 
East. 

The history of the art of weaving in China is lost 
in obscurity, but we may reasonably infer from our 
knowledge of the character of its people that neither 
their methods nor the character of the ornamentation 
have materially changed during a period of as much 
as two thousand years. Dionysius Periegetes informs 
us that the Seres “ make precious figured garments 
resembling in colour the flowers of the field, and 
rivalling in fineness the work of spiders.” 

It is certain that the Egyptians practised the art 
of weaving from very early times, although the 
earliest ornamental fabrics found in Egypt are of 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


49 


the sixth century A.D. In later times, however, their 
woven fabrics were exceedingly sumptuous. Shake¬ 
speare’s description of the barge of Cleopatra will be 
familiar to all— 

“ The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne 
Burned on the water: 

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that 

The winds were love-sick with them ; she did lie 

In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue,” &c. 

The Sicilian brocades of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries were the finest in the world. The character 
of their ornamentation betrays their Eastern origin, 
and we may trace in them the various influences 
which were brought to bear upon them by their 
successive conquerors, and which left a lasting mark 
upon their art. The earliest ornamental influence 
was that of Byzantium, which followed upon the 
conquest of the island by Belisarius in 535. The 
patternings are made up of grotesque animals, birds, 
griffins, chimeras, &c., intertwined with conventional 
foliage or ornament of a purely abstract character. 
After the Saracen conquest, resultant upon the 
preaching of Muhammad, we find Arabic inscriptions 
freely introduced as part of the general decorative 
motive. Gold thread is lavishly used, and, together 
with an admixture of colour, usually forms the 
pattern, upon a coloured ground, dark or light, as the 
case may be. 

The tradition spread to the mainland of Italy, and 
looms were set up in Lucca, Florence, Venice, Genoa, 
and elsewhere ; the character of the ornamentation 
4 














VENETIAN FABRIC IN SILK AND GOLD 

(thirteenth century). 



52 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


gradually changing, however, as the Renascence 
influence began to make itself felt. Even the most 
cursory study of Italian painting will serve to give 
an idea of the splendour of the dresses of the Italian 
Gothic and Renascence periods. 

It was Louis XI. who introduced the art of silk 
weaving into France, and looms were established at 
Tours in 1480. In 1520 looms were set up in Lyons 
by Francis I. 

In England also the art of weaving flourished, and 
was employed for ecclesiastical vestments, hangings, 
furniture, and other purposes, as well as for civil dress. 
In the wardrobe accounts of Edward II. occurs the 
item : “ To a mercer in London fora green hanging of 
wool with figures of Kings and Earls upon it, for 
the King’s service in this hall on solemn feasts at 
London,” &c. 

For the “ mantell of the Garter” of Henry VII. “a 
pound and a half of gold of Venys” was employed 
“ aboute the making of a lace and boton.” 

Instances of the splendour of the costume at the 
different periods of the past might be multiplied 
indefinitely. 

The monk of Malmesbury describes the banner 
under which Harold fought at Hastings as having 
been “ embroidered in gold with the figure of a man 
in the act of fighting, studded with precious stones, 
woven sumptuously.” 

Chaucer describes the King’s daughter in the 
“Squire of Low Degree” as having— 

“ Mantell of ryche degre 
Purple palle and armyne fre.” 


A GENERAL SURVEY 53 

In the “ Romaunt of the Rose” the dress of Mirth 
is described as follows :— 

“ Full yong he was, and merry of thought, 

And in samette, with birdes wrought. 

And with gold beten full fetously 
His bodie was clad full richely.” 


“ A coronell on hur hedd sett, 

Hur clothys wyth bestes and byrdes wer bete. 
All abowte for pryde.” 

And now contrast all this with the extreme poverty 
of the dress of the present day, and turn our thoughts 
for a moment to those terrible cylindrical enormities 
the pot-hat and trousers. 

Dress? we don’t dress—we simply cover our 
nakedness—as in architecture we are content if we 
keep out wind and wet. We have forgotten how to 
dress as we have forgotten how to build, and beauty 
has forsaken dress as it has forsaken the rest of the 
decorative arts. Dress is, or should be, one of the 
decorative arts ; the adornment of a “ human,” assum¬ 
ing that Nature’s marvel must be covered, is, to say 
the very least, as important as the adornment of a 
brick wall. What is the explanation of the wave of 
Philistinism which swept not only England but the 
rest of the world at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century? Can it be the rise of science, which, 
bringing in its wake the mechanical fiend, has 
reduced everything to rule and compass, and thus 
brought about the death of the aesthetic sense? No 



54 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


other period of the world’s history but some country 
forged ahead and kept alight the sacred lamp of 
beauty. 

Trousers are apparently eternal; they date from 
the beginning, and will endure, one fears, to the end 
of sublunary time. Of late there has been a 
tendency, especially amongst middle - aged and 
elderly men, to affect the knickerbocker, although 
whether the aesthetic principle is the mainspring of 
this tendency, coupled with a natural and pardonable 
desire to exhibit a well-developed calf, or whether, 
peradventure, the “ too old at twenty ” cry is at the 
bottom of it, is a question which provides food for 
reflection. 

What, then, in view of this eternity of the trouser, 
can be done to bring it abreast of modern taste and 
thought? because we do move in matters of taste, 
although almost imperceptibly. Speaking as a 
designer, it seems only possible to develop the 
trouser in one of two different directions—that of 
the peg-top or the bell-bottom. Bell-bottoms may 
at once be ruled out of the running, since they have 
become so identified with the coster fraternity that 
no man of fashion would dream of adopting them. 
These, then, are the two extremes or opposite poles. 
There is, however, as the late Mr. Gladstone would 
have said, a third and middle course —their columnar 
character might be retained^ and even emphasised. The 
shafts might be fluted, as in the Corinthian Order, 
or festooned, as in the “ Prentice pillar.” 

In all seriousness, however, the trouser is an 


LONDON PROMENADE DRESS, 1836. 





Ntw YORK, N. Y 


l/BfiARY 





































56 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


absurdity even from the point of view of mere 
comfort. A man cannot sit down without first 
hitching himself up at the knee. The knee is the 
natural place for the garment to be drawn in, as a 
certain degree of looseness is necessary at that point 
in order to allow of the free movement of the 
limb. Nature herself rebels against the trouser, and 
does her level best to produce variety of fold, which 
makes for beauty. Philistine man, however, decides 
otherwise, and that singular invention the trouser- 
stretcher—true emblem of the modern spirit of in¬ 
congruity—is called into play, to undo during the 
night Nature’s doings of the previous day. 

The late Lord Salisbury, in his speech at the Royal 
Academy Banquet on April 30, 1887, is reported as 
saying: “ Then consider the costume of the period. 
Dresses seem to have been selected by the existing 
English generation with a special desire to flout and 
gibe at and repudiate all possibility of compliance 
with any sense of beauty. I am taxing my memory, 
but I cannot remember any sculptor who has been 
bold enough to give a life statue of any English 
notability in the evening dress of the period. I am 
quite sure that if that man exists he must be strongly 
tempted to commit suicide the moment his work 
appears.” 

The Tailor and Cutter —delightfully fascinating 
print!—has thrown out many dark hints lately of 
impending startling changes in men’s attire. By the 
way, who are the Rhadamanthine spirits who sit 
mysteriously in judgment upon these high matters, 
issuing their fateful decrees, regulating the delicate 


A GENERAL SURVEY 


S7 


and subtle curves of the brim of a pot-hat or the 
turn of a coat collar? Perhaps the Tailor and Cutter 
knows, but, upon the principle that knowledge is 
power, declines to say ; anyway, whatever changes 
the immediate future may have in store for us, we 
may take comfort from the fact that they must 
necessarily be in the direction of betterment, since, 
having recently emerged from that bottomless pit of 
all that is aesthetically terrible—the Victorian era: 
the era of the crinoline, the antimacassar, and of wax 
flowers under glass—we could not possibly strike a 
lower depth. 





II 


THE 

TUNIC 


“Where were the variegated robes, works of Sidonian women, 
which god-like Paris himself brought from Sidon, sailing over the 
wide sea, along the course by which he conveyed high-born Helen?” 
— lliad^ vi. 289. 


II 


THE TUNIC 

The earliest made-up garment, that in which the 
art of the tailor was called into play, was doubtless 
a simple bag, more or less closely fitting to the body 
and of varying length, with holes for the arms and 
an opening for the neck. Such a primitive garment 
has been worn in varying forms at all periods of the 
world’s history, and is in use at the present time in 
the form of the ordinary singlet. The modern singlet 
is, in fact, the simple, primeval type of the tunic. 

The coat of many colours which Israel made for 
his son Joseph was unquestionably an embroidered 
tunic, although probably made loose and ample. 
The little coat which the mother of Samuel made 
for her child when he was dedicated to the priesthood, 
and brought to him from year to year, was doubtless 
of the same character. 

Sir Henry Layard, describing the dresses of the 
Assyrians, says “ many are represented naked, but 
the greater number are dressed in short chequered 
tunics with a long fringe attached to the girdle.” 

Some remarkable discoveries have been made 
during the last thirty years in different portions of 
Scandinavia, which serve to give us a very clear idea 
of the dress of both men and women of the remote 

6i 


62 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


period of the Bronze Age. The dresses were found 
in coffins made of an oak-tree split in two and 



TUNIC, PETTICOAT AND GIRDLE, BRONZE AGE. 
From Iiidusirial Arts of Old Denmark''^ [Worsaae). 


hollowed out, the bodies having been buried com¬ 
pletely dressed. An illustration is given of a simple 
woollen tunic with short sleeves and a petticoat with 















THE TUNIC 63 


girdle. This was found at Borum, in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Aarhus, Jutland. 

The tunic was worn by the Egyptians. It is seen 



HUNEFER AND HIS WIFE IN ATTITUDE OF ADORATION. 

From the Papyrus of Hunefer^ or Book of the Deadf c. b.c. 1370 . 


in their sculptures, paintings, and papyri, and may 
be said to have formed their principal garment, after 
the mere loin cloth. The illustrations given are 
taken from the papyrus of Hunefer, or “Book of the 

























64 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Dead,” in the British Museum. The first cut dis¬ 
covers Hunefer, “overseer of the palace of the lord 
of two lands, Men-maat-Ra (Seti L, King of Egypt 
about B.C. 1370), and overseer of the cattle of the 
lord of the two lands, the royal scribe,” and his wife 
Nasha, a lady of the college of the god Amen-Ra at 
Thebes, in the attitude of adoration. 

Hunefer wears a long tunic with sleeves, orna¬ 
mented at the throat and neck, with a broad sash 
around the waist. His wife also wears a long tunic 
with sleeves, probably tied in with a band underneath 
the breasts; it is not clear in the drawing. The 
material is of a light tissue, semi-transparent. 

The second illustration shows a priest wearing 
nothing but a loin cloth and a leopard skin. 

In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a child’s 
tunic, discovered in a tomb at Alkmim (Panopolis), 
Upper Egypt. It is of unbleached linen, dyed blue, 
with a pattern produced by means of what is called 
“ a reserve,” the design being first stamped on the 
fabric by means of a waxy substance which protected 
those portions of the dress from the dye into which 
it was afterwards dipped. The “ reserve ” was then 
removed by a second bath, leaving the pattern in the 
original colour of the fabric. 

With the Greeks the tunic was the principal article 
of attire. It was worn next to the skin, and was of a 
light tissue. In the earlier time it was composed of 
wool, in later periods of flax, and in the latest periods 
it was either of flax mixed with silk or of pure silk. 
The illustration given will serve to show its construc¬ 
tion. It was a simple square bag, open at the two 


THE TUNIC 


65 


ends, made sufficiently wide to admit of the folds 
being ample, and sufficiently long to allow of its 
being gathered up about the waist and breasts. It 



From the Papyrus of Hunefer^ of '‘'‘Book of the Deadf c. b . c . 1370* 

was kept in its place by various means, either by a 
simple girdle round the waist or by cords drawn 
crosswise between the breasts, over the shoulders, 

5 







66 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


looped at the back, and again drawn round the waist, 
or by an arrangement of cords or ribbons drawn over 
each shoulder and attached to the girdle. 

Over the tunic was a second garment, intended to 
afford additional protection to the upper part of the 
body. This was a kind of bib or super-tunic, and 
was composed of a square or rather oblong piece of 
stuff, suspended round the chest and back and secured 
at the shoulders by means of fibulae or buttons. In 



some cases the bib was made deeper under the arms, 
so as to allow the garment to fall in regular zigzag 
folds, ending in a point, which was weighted with 
little pellets of lead in order to ensure a better falling 
of the folds. 

The tunic, as well as the super-tunic, was often 
ornamented with rich borders and diapered with 
sprigs, spots, stars, &c. The tunic of the Roman 
women reached to the feet, with the exception of 











THE TUNIC 


67 


that worn by the Lacedemonian girls, which was 
short, and also divided at the sides so as to show 
their thighs ; and “ this indecency,” says Strutt, was 
countenanced by the laws of Lycurgus. 

Horace, in his twenty-fifth Ode, addressing an old 



THE TUNIC. 

From Hope^s “ Costume of the AncientsF 


woman affecting youth—“ flaunting wife of the indi¬ 
gent Ibycus”—exclaims— 

“ What becomes thee best is a warm woollen dress ; 
Get thee fleeces from famous Luceria.” 

Broadly speaking, classic dress consisted of but 
two elements—the tunic and mantle, both being 
worn of a thicker material during cold weather. 
Ulysses exclaims, in the “ Odyssey ”— 

“ I have no cloak ; the fates have cheated me. 
And left alone my tunic.” 















68 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Dion Cassius has given us an account of the dress 
of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. He says she wore 
a tunic woven chequerwise in purple, red and blue, 
and over it a shorter garment open on the bosom. 
Her yellow hair floated in the wind, and upon her 
shoulders was a mantle fastened by a fibula. It was, 
in fact, a variation of the Roman dress of tunic and 
mantle or toga. This was the dress which was 
common to all nations, both Gaul, Goth, Visigoth, 
and Vandal, from the Roman period to the time of 
Charlemagne, varied, however, according to climatic 
conditions, and ornamented in the manner peculiar to 
the particular country. 

Mr. Planch^ (“ Cyclopaedia of Costume”) says: “ That 
in this chequered cloth we see the original breacan 
feile, the garb of old Gaul, still the national dress of 
the Scotch Highlanders, there can be no doubt; and 
that it was at this time the common habit of every 
Keltic tribe, though now abandoned by all their 
descendants except the hardy and unsophisticated 
Gaelic mountaineers, is admitted, I believe, by every 
antiquary who has made public his opinion on the 
subject.” 

Eginhart, a writer of the ninth century, has left us 
a detailed description of the dress of Charlemagne. 
It consisted of the following parts : The shirt, the 
drawers, the tunic, the stockings, the leg bandages, 
the shoes, the sword-belt, and sword. In the winter 
he added the mantle and the thorax, which was, 
as its name implies, a covering for the chest and 
throat. It was made of otter’s skin, and was 
probably worn underneath the tunic, as no pic- 


THE TUNIC 


69 


tured or other representation of this garment is 
available. 

His tunic was ornamented with a border of silk. 
The material of the tunic itself is not mentioned, but 
Strutt thinks that, according to the custom of the 
time, it was made of linen. It was the short tunic, 
as the historian positively asserts that he wore the 
longer tunic but twice in his life.^ 

Another French writer quoted by Strutt mentions 
stockings and trowsers, the latter of linen, but orna¬ 
mented with precious workmanship, i.e., embroidery 
as forming part of the dress of the Franks. 

Fortunately, we are able to form a very complete 
idea of Frankish dress from the sculptured effigies of 
Clovis and his Queen Clothilde on the facade of the 

* With the object of making more complete a work on 
ancient textile fabrics which the Prussian Government is 
issuing, the sarcophagus at Aix-la-Chapelle Cathedral in 
which the remains of Charlemagne rest has been opened, 
and certain pieces of valuable silk have been extracted in 
order that they may be examined and photographed. The 
great Frankish Emperor’s bones were wrapped in these costly 
cloths. One of them is ancient Constantinople work, the pro¬ 
duction of the celebrated Imperial Byzantine workshops, and 
represents a brilliantly coloured surface with elephants em¬ 
broidered in circles. The other piece is believed to be of 
Sicilian origin, with a design of birds and hares. 

Charlemagne’s bones are still intact, with the exception of 
the skull and one arm, whicli are in another part of the 
Cathedral. Medical men who have examined these bones 
say that the Emperor was a man of huge proportions. The 
Kaiser is greatly interested in the preparation of this work 
on ancient tissues, and it was his Majesty who induced the 
Archbishop of Cologne to consent to the opening of the 
sarcophagus .—Daily Paper. 



i 



i 


X 



















































From Hope's “ Costume of the Ancients." 





















72 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Cathedral of Chartres, and other records which have 
come down to us. The pencil, or the sculptor’s chisel, 
must necessarily be more eloquent and convincing 
than any written description can possibly be. The 
general appearance of the Queen may, however, be 
described as follows : She wears a long loose tunic 
of soft material, reaching to the ground, confined by 
a falling girdle with an oval clasp in front, in which 
emeralds, amethysts and rubies vie with each other 
in their brilliance. The sleeves are long and ample, 
the edges serrated in the form of leaves. The long 
flowing embroidered mantle is fastened by a gold 
fibula at the throat. Her flaxen hair falls in two 
long double plaits in front of her person, reaching 
almost to the ground ; the plaits being first bound 
singly by a dark ribbon, and each pair bound 
together by a lighter ribbon. A thin gauze veil 
covers the head, which is surmounted by a crown 
of exquisite workmanship. 

The dress of the Byzantine women, at the time of 
the dismemberment of the Roman Empire in 395, 
was still the loose or semi-loose tunic, with sleeves 
added, elaborately ornamented in the rich diapered 
patterns peculiar to that period and nation, and 
confined at the waist by a girdle. This costume, 
with variations, obtained until the Norman Conquest, 
when costume began to be more complex. The long 
loose gown is variously described in documents of the 
period by the names of the tunic, Xho. gunna or gown, 
and the kirtle. There was a short tunic, with sleeves 
reaching only to the elbows, and there was a long 
tunic, with tight sleeves, worn underneath. The 


THE TUNIC 73 

kirtle, such as we are familiarised with in the dress of 
a later period, had not come into being. As a 
matter of fact, the term “ kirtle ” is indiscriminately 
used in the description of various garments. Tyrwhitt 
describes it as “ a tunic or waistcoat.” 

In the “ Romaunt of the Rose” the “damoselles 
right young ” are arrayed— 

“ In kirtles and noon other wede,” 

evidently here intended for a long gown or tunic. 

The dress of the twenty young squires chosen by 
Guy of Warwick is thus described ;— 

“ Kyrtyls they had oon of sylke ' 

Also whyte, as any mylke. I 

Of gode sylke and of purpull palle j 
Mantels above they caste all. 1 

Hosys they had uppon, but no schone ;l 
Barefote they were everychone.” 

Both Strutt and some other writers on the subject 
of costume appear to be puzzled by the colouring of 
the earlier illuminators, principally, however, with 
respect to the colour of the hair and beard, but also 
in regard to the various details of costume. They 
remark the curious circumstance of the hair and 
beard being painted blue. “In representations of old 
men this might be considered only to indicate grey 
hair; but even the flowing locks of Eve are painted 
blue in one MS., and the heads of youth and age 
exhibit the same cerulean tint.” Strutt argues from 
this that some art of tinting or dyeing was practised. 


74 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


A writer who quotes Strutt says : “ The hair being 
painted sometimesand orange is in favour of this 
argument, but such instances are very rare, and may 
have arisen from the idleness of the illuminator, who 
daubed it, perhaps, with the nearest colour at hand.” 
This, however, was not in the least so. The explana¬ 
tion is, as any educated artist knows (artists are not 
all educated), that with the old illuminator the decora¬ 
tion of thepage\wdiS his first consideration—rightly so; 
and the colour of the hair and beard, together with 
the precise tint of the gown, would incline to either 
blue, red, or yellow, accordingly as the exigencies of 
the general colour scheme demanded. This fact 
should always be kept in mind in considering the 
colour of any illuminated MS. 

This colouring is amusingly parodied by Mr. Punch 
in his book of British costumes (i860). He gives a 
fragment of a love song, “ commonly believed to have 
been written by King Vortigern, who was inveigled 
into marriage with the daughter of old Hengist ” ;— 

“ Rowena is my ladye-love. 

Her robe itte is a gunna ; 

Shee wears blewe haire her ears above, 

O is shee notte a stunna!” 

He adds ; “ Critics disagree as to the meaning of the 
word ‘ stunna,’ but we incline, ourselves, to think it 
was a bit of Saxon slang, and from the context we 
imagine it was used by way of compliment.” 

A development of the super-tunic was the surcoat, 
which was worn by either sex during the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries. It assumed a variety of 















































76 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


forms, and was either a long loose outer garment, 

variously shaped and sleeveless, or, as during the 

reign of Richard II., was a shorter, closely-fitting 

jacket or coat with sleeves, and usually trimmed 

with miniver or other fur. 

The surcoat, or super-tunic, during the Anglo- 

Saxon period, was worn by the nobility only, and 

was therefore made of the most costly 

material, of silk or of finest linen, and 

often richly embroidered. As a matter 

of fact, embroidery always forms a 

conspicuous element in Anglo-Saxon 

dress, the Anglo-Saxon women being 

famous for their skill with the needle. 

We learn from Eginhart that the four 

Princesses, daughters of Edward the 

Elder, and sisters to ^thelstan, were 

celebrated for their skill in spinning, 

weaving, and embroidering, and Editha, 

the wife of Edward the Confessor, was 

a perfect mistress of the needle. 

A somewhat remarkable feature of 

Anglo-Saxon dress of the eighth cen- 

DREss (eighth tury was the long super-tunic with long 
century). , . . 

sleeves, worn m travelling or during 

cold weather. The sleeves not only cover the hands, 

but reach considerably below the tips of the fingers. 

The sleeves worn by the Chinese mandarins at the 

present time are identical with the long sleeves of the 

Anglo-Saxon period. 

The tunic, so far as women’s dress is con¬ 
cerned, may be said to have finally disappeared 
















THE TUNIC 


77 


by the time of the Tudors, when a woman’s dress 
consisted of kirtle or petticoat, and bodice or 
stomacher. Indeed, the tunic proper may be said to 
have disappeared with the general change which 
came about in costume immediately after the 
Norman Conquest, the Saxon word “gunna” and 
the Norman “surcoat” better describing the dresses 
of that period. 

The term “ tunic ” is also applied to the military 
surcoat of the present time, this article of military 
costume, however, bearing no sort of affinity to the 
original tunic. 

An important adjunct of the tunic was the girdle, 
by which the garment was looped up and confined 
within reasonable limits. In the case of the men, as 
Strutt observes, it served a double purpose, that of 
confining the tunic, and supporting the sword. 

Girdles were of various kinds—a sash of silk or 
other materials ; or formed of leather, either a simple 
thong or ornamented in various ways ; or of different 
cloths, richly embroidered and studded with jewels ; 
or of metal. The girdle of Charlemagne was com¬ 
posed of gold and silver. 

“ A girdel ful riche for the nanes 
Of perry and of precious stanes.” 

Ywaine and Gawin. 

The Imperial girdle of the Holy Roman Empire 
was woven in silk and gold, having a woven inscrip¬ 
tion upon the narrow border, and clasped by means 
of a heavy gilt buckle. 

It is recorded that upon the return of Henry VI. 


78 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


to England after his coronation in France in 1432 
the Lord Mayor of London rode to meet him at 
Eltham, “ being arrayed in crimson velvet, a great 
velvet hat furred, a girdle of gold about his middle, 
and a baldrick of gold about his neck trailing down 
behind him.” 

Numerous fine examples of the girdle occur among 
the early brasses. It was used also by both sexes 
for the purpose of suspending or sustaining the 
pouch or purse which was invariably worn during 
the Middle Ages, as it was the only form of 
pocket— 

“ And by his gurdil hyng a purs of lethir, 
Tassid with silk, and perled with latoun.” 

Millers Tale. 

The name “ cut-purse ” applied to thieves is derived 
from the circumstance of the leather thongs which 
attached the pouch to the girdle being slit with a 
knife. 

* ^ ^ % 

Some few years ago a movement, having its origin, 
singularly enough, in the United States, above all 
places, was instituted for the purpose of inducing 
the modern Greeks to adopt the ancient costume 
of their forefathers, several prominent Americans 
masquerading in the streets of Athens in tunic and 
peplum. The only result of the movement was to 
create a diversion amongst the inhabitants, who pro¬ 
bably regarded their would-be instructors as harmless 
lunatics. The result was, indeed, inevitable ; such 
sentimental movements are predestined to failure. 


THE TUNIC 


79 


A national costume is of slow growth; it is the 
natural outcome of the general habits, mode of 
thought, and temper of a people. It is as impos¬ 
sible to bring about a sudden change in dress as it is 
to create a new style of architecture. 

* ^ * 

At the annual congress of Prussian female elemen¬ 
tary school teachers held recently at Altona, some 
interesting papers were read which are germane to 
this subject of costume, and which serve to show that 
some of the continental peoples are more alive to the 
importance of this subject than we are. We give a 
short resume which appeared in the pages of the 
Daily Chronicle a short while ago. The italics are 
ours. 

“ School-Inspector Muller urged the necessity of 
reform of children’s clothes, stating that the human 
body is a most magnificent work of art which is fre¬ 
quently maltreated with corsets and other tightly fitting 
garments. 

“ Fraulein Lischnevska, of Spandau, said a return 
must be made to the pure art of the ancient Greeks. 
During gymnastic exercises children must be naked, 
and only immoral persons would regard this as 
immoral. This remark was greeted with a storm 
of applause. 

“ PTaulein Bertha Jordan, of Mulhausen, deplored 
the fact of people becoming so greatly estranged from 
art^ a circtimstance which she ascribed to the degrada¬ 
tion of work and the severance from nature, both 
resulting from industrialism. The remedy, she 
considers, lies with schools and school education. 


8o 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


and she argued that much can be done by a care¬ 
ful selection of pictures on the class-room walls, by 
awakening faculties of observation in children and 
arousing their interest in nature which surrounds 
them.” 


NEW YORK. N. Y, 


library 




Ill 


THE 

MANTLE 


6 


The gret Emetreus the Kyng of Ynde 
Uppon a steede bay trapped in steel 
Covered with cloth and of gold dyapred wel 
Cam rydyng lyk the god of arines mars 
His coote armour was a cloth of Tars 
Cowched of perlys whyte round and grete 
His sadil was of brend gold newe bete 
A mantelet upon his schuldre hangyng 
Bret-ful of Rubies reed and fir sparclyng 
His crispe her lik rynges was i-ronne 
And that was yalwe and gliteryng as the sonne. 

Chaucer, The Knight's Tale. 



THE CORONATION MANTLE. 


Preserved in the Imperial Treastcrv in Vienna. 


Ill 

THE MANTLE 

Of the famous mantles recorded in history, one of 
the first which will occur to the mind is that 
of Elijah, in which he hid his face when he stood 
in the cave at Horeb, and heard the still, small 
voice, which came after the fire, which came after 
the earthquake, which came after the great strong- 
wind which rent the mountains, and brake in pieces 
the rocks before the Lord. And afterwards, when 
he “ found Elisha the son of Shaphat who was 
plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and 
he with the twelfth, Elijah passed by him and cast 
his mantle upon himP 

And again, on the shores of Jordan, “ Elijah 
took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote 
the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, 
so that they two went over on dry ground.” 


83 








84 


Cf^ATS ON CO^TVME 


“ And it came to pass as they still went on, and 
talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, 
and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder ; 
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” 

“ And Elisha saw it, and he cried. My father, my 
father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. 
And he saw him no more; and he took hold of his 
own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.” 

“ He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell 
from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of 
Jordan.” 

“ And when the sons of the prophets which were 
to view at Jericho saw him, they said. The spirit of 
Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet 
him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.” 

St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, soldier of God, 
dividing his mantle with the beggar at the gates 
of Amiens, is one of many similar stories in the 
earlier history of the Christian Church. It is a 
variation of the story of St. Christopher, and is 
intended as a lesson in charity. The legend recounts 
that Christ appeared to him the following night 
covered with the half of his mantle. 

What schoolboy but does not remember the story 
of Raleigh’s mantle, which he cast into the mire 
in order that Queen Elizabeth’s feet might not be 
soiled ? “ The night had been rainy, and just where 

the young gentleman stood, a small quantity of mud 
interrupted the Queen’s passage. As she hesitated 
to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his 
shoulders, laid it on the miry spot, so as to ensure 


THE MANTLE 


85 


her stepping over it dryshod. Elizabeth looked at 
the young man, who accompanied this act of devoted 
courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush 
that overspread his whole countenance. The Queen 
was confused, and blushed in her turn, nodded her 
head, hastily passed on, and embarked in her barge 
without saying a word.” ^ 

The mantle is the cloak or outermost covering to 
the body, and was originally worn either when the 
weather was unpropitious, or, as occasion demanded. 

The peplum of the Greeks was, in fact, a mantle, 
worn by both sexes, and was occasionally very long, 
passing twice round the body, first underneath the 
arms and then over the shoulder. In rainy or cold 
weather it was pulled over the head, and also in 
times of mourning. 

The peplum had no clasps or fastenings of any 
sort, but was kept in its place by its own involutions, 
of which the combinations were almost endless. 

It will readily be understood that the natural 
foldings of drapery, possessing in themselves so 
much variety and interest, when thrown over a form 
so beautifully proportioned as is the human figure, 
gave the utmost grace of line and form, and this 
fact makes it all the more surprising that the 
natural foldings of drapery are not taken greater 
advantage of in modern dress. The peplum was 
often diapered with sprigs, spots, stars, or other 
patternings, and was occasionally richly bordered. 

The Greeks also occasionally wore a shorter and 
simpler cloak, called chlamys, in lieu of the more 
* Scott’s “ Kenilworth.” 


86 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


ample peplum ; such a short mantle is the one which 
we see upon the shoulders of the Apollo Belvidere. 

The Roman toga corresponded to the Greek 
peplum, but differed from it in shape, and was more 
ample, for while the peplum was square, or rather 
oblong, the toga assumed the form of two semicircles— 
a larger and a smaller one, or, more correctly speaking, 
a semicircle and the smaller segment of a circle, which 



PLAN OF THE TOGA. 


was doubled over the semicircle before adjustment. 
One end of the toga was then placed upon the left 
shoulder in such a position that the end or point just 
touched the ground, the rest of the garment drawn 
round the back of the figure, underneath the right 
arm, and flung again over the left shoulder ; a sort of 
loop or bag was then drawn out at the waist in 






the toga. 


From Hope's 


Costmne of the AftcientsF 



























88 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


front and served as a pocket. The toga measured 
18 feet from tip to tip, or three times the height of a 
man. It was worn always over the tunic—at any rate 
during the later Roman time. Horace, in his fourth 
Epode, thus satirises an upstart:— 

“ Mark, as along the Sacred Way thou flauntest. 
Puffing thy toga, twice three cubits wide.” 

The material of the toga was wool, in the earlier 
time and for the common people ; afterwards silk and 
other materials were used, coloured or bordered 
according to the rank or station of the wearer. 

The mantle—that is, the simple square or oblong 
cloak which was derived from the Greek peplum— 
was worn in different ways from the Roman period 
onwards, either thrown loosely over the shoulders as 
was the peplum, or fastened at the shoulder or breast 
by means of fibulae, rings, or cords. In a bas-relief 
found at Autun and engraved in Montfaucon, an 
archdruid is represented with a long mantle reach¬ 
ing to the ground, the ends drawn through a ring 
upon the left shoulder. 

The large coronation mantle of the Holy Roman 
Empire, preserved in the Imperial Treasury at 
Vienna, is semicircular in shape, of red silk, richly 
embroidered in gold thread, the outlines emphasised 
by rows of seed pearls. The design, which is divided 
in the middle by a representation of a palm tree, 
figures on either side a lion springing upon a camel, 
and is treated with that noble convention charac¬ 
teristic of early Sicilian design. On the border of the 
curved edge is worked an Arabic inscription (common 


THE MANTLE 89 

in earlier Sicilian fabrics), stating that the robe was 
worked in the Royal factory at Palermo in 1134. 

One of the gifts which the five maidens present to 
Beryn from Duke Isope is a purple mantle— 

“ The thirde had a mantell of lusty fressh coloure 
The uttir part of purpell i-furred with peloure.” 

The Tale of Beryn. 

The mantle was a distinguishing feature of the 
costume of the Franks, which was a variation of 
Roman or classic dress, i.e., the loose tunic and mantle, 
with the addition of hose or leg covering with cross 
gartering ; both tunic and mantle were often elabor¬ 
ately bordered in a style of ornament which strongly 
betrayed, in fact, was a development of, Byzantine 
influences. 

King John of Gascogny having been counselled by 
his barons to yield up to Charlemagne the four sons 
of Aymon, after much sorrow, summons his secretary 
—“ Come forth, syre Peter, and write a letter from 
me to the Kinge Charlemagne, as I shall telle you : It 
is that I sende hym salutacyon wyth goode love, and 
yf he wyll leve me my londe in peas, I promyse hym 
that afore ten dayes ben paste, I shall delyver unto 
hym the foure sones of Aymon, and he shall fynde 
theym in the playne of Valcolours clothed with 
scarlette furred wyth ermynes, and ridynge upon 
mewles, berynge in theyr handes flowres and roses for 
a token, bycause that men shall better knowe them.” 

Charlemagne calls then his chamberlain—“ Make 
a lettre to Kyng Yon of Gascoyne in my behalve. 
Wryte that I sende hym salutacyon and goode love. 


90 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


and that yf he dooth for me as he sayth, I shall 
encrease his royame wyth fourtene goode castelles, 
and therof I gyve hym for surete our lorde and 
saynte Denys of Fraunce, and that I sende hym four 
mauntelles of scarlette furred wyth ermynes, for to 
clothe wythall the traytoures, when they shall goo to 
the playne of Valcoloures, and there they shall be 
hanged, yf God wyll.” ^ 

The Venetian mantle which Charlemagne wore 
was, according to an early French writer quoted by 
Strutt, of a grey or blue colour. It was quadrangular 
in its form, and so doubled that when placed upon 
the shoulders it hung down as low as the feet before 
and behind, but on the sides it scarcely reached to 
the knees. 

In the Anglo-Saxon dress of the earlier period, 
the mantle is a simple square with a border on the 
outer side, the two upper corners being gathered 
together at the shoulders and fastened with brooches 
connected by a chain. It is an instance of a very 
decorative effect being produced by simple means. 

The coronation mantle of Edward the Confessor 
was richly embroidered by his Queen, Editha. 

William of Malmesbury mentions a mantle pre¬ 
sented to Henry I. by Robert Bloet, Bishop of 
Lincoln, which was lined with black sables with 
white spots, and cost i^ioo, a large sum in those days. 

The mantle, during the Norman period, underwent 
little change. It was fastened, either upon one of the 
shoulders, generally the right, or in front, by means 
of fibulae or pins of an ornamental character. In the 
* “The Four Sons of Aymon,” Caxton’s version. 


THE MANTLE 


9 


earliest sculptured effigies of Eng¬ 
lish Sovereigns which we possess, 
those of Henry I. and his Queen 
Matilda at the west door of 
Rochester Cathedral, the King is 
represented in a long dalmatic, 
with a loose mantle thrown over 
his left arm. The Queen has a 
more formal mantle, resting upon 
either shoulder, the system of 
fastening of which is hidden by 
the two long plaits of hair which 
fall down on either side, but which 
was probably some kind of orna¬ 
mental strap. The ordinary mantles 
of this period were often provided 
with a “ capa ” or cowl, which was 
drawn over the head and fre¬ 
quently used in lieu of a hat. 

In the effigies of the Plantagenet 
Kings, the mantles are generally of 
the long flowing character above 
described, varied by rich border- 
ings or embroiderings. Henry 11., 
however, introduced a shorter 
mantle (cloak of Anjou), from 
which circumstance he obtained 
the sobriquet of “ Curt manteau.” 
The effigy of Eleanor of Castile, 
his Queen, in the Abbey of 
Fontevraud in Normandy, shows 
a mantle embroidered with a 



STATUE OF 
QUEEN MATILDA AT 
ROCHESTER. 




CHATS ON COSTUME 


92 

“ powdering ” of gold crescents. That of Cceur de 
Lion, in the same Abbey, has a square-bordered 
mantle fastened at the breast by a fibula at the upper 
corners. The two lower corners are plainly shown 
in the statue folded over each other. 

During the reign of Henry III. costume generally 
increased in splendour. The effigy of this monarch, 
however, exhibits a loose plain mantle, fastened by 
a fibula on the right shoulder, the folds of the 
mantle hanging in a series of regular festoons over 
the front of the figure. 

In the Harleian MSS. is a satirical Latin “Song 
upon the Tailors” of this reign (Henry HI.), an 
English version of which is included in Mr. Wright’s 
“ Political Songs,” published by the Camden Society. 
Addressing the tailors, it commences :— 

“ I have said ye are gods ; why should I omit the 
service which should be said on festival days ? Gods 
certainly ye are, who can transform an old garment 
into the shape of a new one. The cloth, while fresh 
and new, is made either a cape or mantle; but, in 
order of time, first it is a cape, after a little space 
this is transformed into the other : Thus ye change 
bodies. When it becomes old, the collar is cut off; 
when deprived of the collar it is made a mantle: 
Thus in the manner of Proteus are garments changed. 
When at length winter returns, many engraft immedi¬ 
ately upon the cape a capuce; then it is squared; 
after being squared it is rounded, and so it becomes 
an amice. If there remain any morsels of the cloth 
or skin which is cut, they do not want a use : of these 
are made gloves. This is the general manner, they 



Photo by'] 


[Emery Walker 


LORD BURLEIGH, 152O-I598. 

National Portrait Gallery, 





94 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


all make one robe out of another, English, Germans, 
French, and Normans, with scarcely an exception. 
Thus cape is declined, but mantel otherwise: in the 
first year while it is fresh, the skin and the cloth 
being both new, it is laid up in a box ; when, how¬ 
ever, the fur begins to be worn off, and the thread 
of the seams broken, the fur is clipped and placed 
on a new mantle, until at last, in order that nothing 
may be lost, it is given to the servant for his wages.” 

The vestments of the most noble Order of the 
Garter, founded, as every student of history knows, in 
the reign of Edward 111 .,’^ consisted originally of a 
mantle, a tunic, and capuchon, of blue woollen cloth, 
cut to the fashion of the period, the knights 
differing only from the monarchs in respect of the 
tunic being lined with miniver instead of ermine. 
All three garments were closely diapered or pow¬ 
dered with garters of gold, the mantle having one 
larger than the rest on the left shoulder, enclosing a 
shield, Argent, with the cross of St. George, Gules. 

The vestments of this Order have been constantly 
altered during different periods. In the seventh 
year of Richard II. the surcoat or tunic was of 
“ violet in grain,” in the eleventh year white, and in 
the twelfth and nineteenth of “ long blue cloth.” 
They were changed again to white in the first year 
of Henry V., another change to scarlet in the reign 
of Henry VI., and afterwards back again to white. 

The number of embroidered garters on the coat 

" This chivalrous monarch not only founded the Order of 
the Garter, but even contemplated the revival of the Round 
Table. 


THE MANTLE 


95 


and chaperon wer^e in this reign limited to 120 for a 
duke, 110 for a marquis, 90 for an earl, decreasing 
in the same atio to 60 in the case of a knight 
bachelor. The King’s was unlimited ; on the sur- 
coat and hrjod of Henry VI. there were 173. 

The ip^dterial of the mantle was changed to velvet 
durinp^ this reign, lined with white damask or satin. 

b ii the reign of Henry VI I. an important addition 
' was made to the insignia of this Order, that of the 
collar. The whole habit sent to the King of Castile 
in the twenty-seventh year of this reign consisted 
of mantle, kirtle, hood and collar^ and was of purple 
velvet lined with silk or sarcenet, the embroidered 
garters entirely disappearing. 

The Statutes of the Order were reformed by 
Henry VI 11 ., who also altered the dress to the fashion 
of the period. The flat velvet hat or cap, so familiar 
in Holbein’s portraits, superseded the chaperon or 
hood, which was, however, still worn hung or depend¬ 
ing upon the shoulder, and called the huinerale. Both 
hat and surcoat were of crimson velvet. 

The lesser George., or jewel of the Order, was intro¬ 
duced during this reign, suspended upon the breast by 
either a gold chain or riband, which latter was black. 

In the reign of Elizabeth, the flat hat gives place to 
one with a higher crown, being more in keeping with 
the fashion of the time, but no other alteration of 
the habit was made. 

During the reign of Charles 11 , ostrich or heron 
plumes appear in the cap, and the broad blue riband 
was worn over the left shoulder and under the right 


arm. 


96 


CHATS ON costume 


As at present worn, the mantle is of purple velvet 
lined with taffetas, bearing on the le'ft shoulder the 
badge of the Order, viz., a silver escutcheon charged 
with the red cross of St. George and enriched with 
the garter and motto. In chapters it is wor^^ over the 
uniform or Court dress. The surcoat, or gown 

without sleeves, is made of crimson velvet, lineo, hke 
the mantle, with white taffetas silk. The hood, woi r» 
on the right shoulder of the mantle, is made of the 
same velvet as the surcoat, and lined with the same 
material. 

Matthew Paris, describing the solemnisation of 
the marriage of Alexander III. of Scotland with 
the Princess Margaret, sister of Henry III., says :— 

“ There were great abundance of people of all 
ranks, multitudes of the nobility of England, France, 
and Scotland, with crowds of Knights and military 
Officers, the whole of them pompously adorned 
with garments of silk, and so transformed with 
excess of Ornaments that it would be impossible 
to describe their dresses without being tiresome to 
the reader, though it would excite his astonishment. 
Upwards of one thousand Knights on the part of the 
King of England attended the nuptials in vest¬ 
ments of silk, curiously wrought in embroidery ; 
and these vestments on the morrow were laid aside; 
and the same Knights appeared in new robes of still 
more magnificent decoration. The nobles of Scot¬ 
land and of P'rance did not fall a whit below those 
of England in their show and parade. The Barons 
and the Knights were habited in robes of divers 
colours ; sometimes they appeared in green, some- 



LODOWICK, DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENNOX. 

Engr-aved by J. Barra. 

7 















98 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


times in blue, then again in grey, and afterwards in 
scarlet, varying the colours according to their fancies, 
or the wills of the ladies to whom they had dedicated 
their amorous vows. Their breasts were adorned 
with fibuliE, or brooches of gold ; and their shoulders 
with precious stones of great magnitude, such as 
emeralds, sapphires, jacinths, pearls, rubies, and other 
rich ornaments. The ladies who attended had rings 
of gold, set with topaz stones and diamonds, upon 
their fingers ; their heads were adorned with elegant 
crests or garlands ; and their wimples were composed 
of the richest stuffs, embroidered with pure gold, 
and embellished with the rarest jewellery.” 

In an inventory of the wardrobe and jewels of 
Henry V., taken in 1423 at his decease, mention is 
made of heukes of scarlet cloth and camlet, and 
pilches of grey fur. The word pilche is a corruption 
of the Latin pelliceus, or the Saxon pylce, and repre¬ 
sented a coat of fur worn during cold weather. The 
modern word pelisse used to describe a child’s coat is 
derived from the same source.^ 

“ After grete hete comith colde. 

No man cast his pilche away.” 

Chaucer. 

A farewell letter of Bishop Ridley (Foxe’s “ Book 
of Martyrs ”), describing the sufferings of Christ’s true 
soldiers, says :— 

“They were stoned, hewn asunder, tempted, fell, 
and were slain upon the edge of the sword ; some 

^ Pilch or pilcher, a scabbard, a covering for the sword. 


THE MANTLE 


99 


wandered to and fro in sheep’s pilches, in goats’ 
pilches, forsaken, oppressed, afflicted.” 

In the inventory above referred to are mentioned. 



PORTION OF THE PICTURE OF THE MIRACLE OF ST. BERNARD. 
Fiorenzo di Lore 7 izo, Pinacoteca, Perugia. 

“ gounes de noier damask, furrez de sides de foynes 
et marterons.” The cost of these furs is also given— 







lOO 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ iii pares de foyns, chascun cont’ c. bestes, pris le 
pec’ ^d. xii/£ x>y.,” the marteron being more costly. 

The foyne appears to have been the same as the 
polecat or fitchet. 

The pylce was in common use during the Anglo- 
Saxon period, and worn by all classes. In Michel’s 
“ Chroniques Anglo-Normandes,” c. 1185, is described 
a meeting on a little bridge near Westminster 
between Tosti, Earl of Huntingdon, and Siward, 
Earl of Northumberland. “The said Earl approached 
so near to Siward on the bridge that he dirtied his 
pelisse (pelles) with his miry feet; for it was then 
customary for noblemen to use skins without cloth.” 
This evidently referring to a long mantle or cloak. 

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions the great 
gifts and many treasures of skins decked with purple, 
pelisses of marten skin, weasel skin, and ermine skin, 
which King Malcolm of Scotland and his sister 
Margaret gave to the Conqueror in 1074. 

During the general change which came about in 
costume in the reign of Richard II. a shorter 
mantle or cloak began to be worn, which continued 
at intervals and under various forms until the uni¬ 
versal adoption of coats at the close of the reign of 
Charles II. 

In the tempera painting of the miracle of St. 
Bernard by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo in the Pinacoteca 
at Perugia, a young man is wearing a short cloak 
or mantle, hanging in very formal folds from the 
shoulder and reaching a little below the middle. 
The mantle is buttoned upon the right shoulder, thus 
repeating the principle of the Roman toga, which 


THE MANTLE 


lOI 


leaves the right arm free. A similar short cloak 
is figured in a copy of Froissart’s Chronicles in the 
Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. There was 
a reason for the mantle being fastened upon the 
right shoulder; it was that the right arm is the 
sword-arm. This, however, does not apply to the 
toga, which is the last garment that a man would 
fight in. Two other figures in the picture above 
mentioned are habited in long cloaks reaching to the 
feet, with full sleeves ; the cloak of the dark figure 
lined and bordered with miniver, and the other of a 
different fur. 

These long robes with ample sleeves constantly 
occur in Benozzo Gozzoli’s frescoes in the Campo 
Santo at Pisa, either flowing loosely or confined 
by a girdle, and generally lined and bordered with 
miniver, which appears to be a favourite enrichment 
with Benozzo. These garments are worn usually by 
more elderly persons. 

In a small but extremely elaborate and beautiful 
picture by Fra Angelico, in the Convent of San 
Marco at Florence, a figure appears habited in one 
of these long robes, having openings for the sleeves 
of the under garment, which are of a different 
material, to pass through. The dress is confined by 
a rich girdle. 

During the reign of Elizabeth the short cloak, 
or cape cloak, continued to be worn. It reached 
scarcely below the waistbelt, was provided with a 
collar, which was often deep, and was lined with 
silk or satin of a different colour to the outside, 
often extremely rich. 


102 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ Here is a cloke cost fifty pound, wife, 

Which I can sell for thirty when I have seen 
All London in’t, and London has seen me.” 

Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass. 

The Spanish cloak was thrown loosely over the 
shoulders somewhat after the manner of the toga. 
It was customary to wrap it around the left arm to 
serve as a shield in duels. 

In the portrait of Prince Henry, eldest son of 
James I. (p. 103), the Prince is figured as wearing a 
long mantle reaching to the knees. It has a collar, a 
richly jewelled border, and is lined with silk damask. 

The Puritan cloak did not differ materially in 
shape from that worn by the Cavaliers, but, like the 
rest of Puritan dress, was entirely bare of ornament ;— 

‘‘ He was tall and fair, and had plain but very good 
cloaths on his back” (Bunyan, “ Life of Mr. Badman ”). 

There are a number of references to dress in 
Pepys’s “ Diary,” which covers a period of ten years, 
1659-69. 

Under date July i, 1660, he writes : “ This morning 
came home my fine camlett cloak, with gold buttons, 
and a silk suit, which cost me much money, and I 
pray God to make me able to pay for it.” 

About this time a shorter cloak, reaching to a little 
below the waist, came into fashion. On October yth 
(Lord’s Day) of the same year, 1660, occurs the 
entry: “To Whitehall on foot, calling at my father’s 
to change my long black cloake for a short one, 
(long cloakes being now quite out), but he being 
gone to church, I could not get one.” 



'MMt tCt^ AkV \ 
]ik>X3^ 
!Wn;r to tK« Jun^ 
''■ ■ T ■ <uc u>rd* 
'.i-.e c f J>vit 5i'ta^’ 
•'-1 tXii/fV»"n, 




p <£>. w. V n-'aiw, 0 )t 4 


JJiMjiiiKX-rr^Miilfxii. h* «tVy^ 


PRINCE HENRY, ELDEST SON OF JAMES I 



























104 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Under date October 22, 1663, occurs an entry which 
refers to the material of the cloak. The Queen was 
ill of the spotted fever, and, upon hearing that she 
had grown worse, he sends to his tailor to stop the 
making of his velvet cloak (presumably coloured) 
“till I see whether she lives or dies.” 

The velvet, however, referred to the lining of the 
cloak, which was often richer than the outside. On 
the 29th of the following month (the Queen had 
recovered and was about again) he dons his best 
black cloth suit, trimmed with scarlet ribbon, very 
neat, and his “ cloak lined with velvet, and a new 
beaver, which altogether is very noble.” 

In the reign of William III. the long skirted coats 
of the men, with waistcoats reaching to the knees, 
rendered any outer clothing unnecessary, except for 
the coldest weather, when long cloaks were worn, 
together with muffs, by the beaux. 

Muffs were at this period worn as commonly by 
men as by women, and this fashion continued for 
nearly a century. 

The beau with his muff is thus satirised in the 
comic opera “ Lionel and Clarissa,” by Isaac Bicker- 
staff, c. 1768 :— 

“ A coxcomb, a fop, a dainty milk-sop ; 

Who, essenc’d and dizen’d from bottom to top. 

Looks just like a doll for a milliner’s shop. 

A thing full of prate, and pride and conceit; 

All fashion, no weight; 

Who shrugs and takes snuff; and carries a muff; 

A minnikin, finicking, French powder-puff!” 



Photo ft)'] 


[Walker & Cockerell. 

EARL OF ROCHESTER, 164I-17II. 

Kneller., National Portrait Gallery. 





o6 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


The mantle does not appear to have particularly 
excited the wrath of the satirists. It is, indeed, so 
entirely reasonable a garment both for men and 
women, that it is difficult to see how it could possibly 
provide material for satire. 

Broadly speaking, there are three conditions neces¬ 
sary to beautiful dress, namely, beauty of material, 
excellence of workmanship, and variety of fold. If 
ornament be introduced, it should be of a good 
character, and employed rather in accordance with 
those well understood laws of contrast than an 
indiscriminate covering of the whole field ; in fact, 
this defeats its own purpose, as richness of effect 
depends upon concentration, as a painter focusses 
light, colour, or other interest in a particular part of 
his work and allows nothing to detract from it. As 
a general rule, plain spaces are best adapted for orna¬ 
mentation, although in the rich brocades of the fine 
periods the foldings of the material give an added 
richness and variety to the patterning. 

The mantle, therefore, is usually bare of ornament 
or simply bordered, except for occasions of high 
ceremony; certainly plain if worn loosely, and many 
foldings ensue ; and any richness of ornament is con¬ 
fined to the more closely fitting portions of the dress. 
In a word, the decorative conditions of dress are as 
well defined, as absolute, as in any other of the 
ornamental arts. 



DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, 



i/6RAR^ 















IV 

THE 

DOUBLET 
AND HOSE 


“ Monsieur, the King’s elder brother, has set up for a kind of wit ; 
and leans towards the Philosophe side. Monseigneur d’Artois pulls 
the mask from a fair impertinent; fights a duel in consequence,— 
almost drawing blood. He has breeches of a kind new in this world ; 
—a fabulous kind, ‘ four tall lackeys,’ says Mercier, as if he had seen it, 
‘ hold him in the air, that he may fall into the garment without vestige of 
wrinkle ; from which rigorous encasement the same four, in the same 
way, and with more eftbrt, have to deliver him at night.’ ”— Carlyle, 
French Revolution^ Book II., Chap. I. 



ITALIAN CASSONE (FIFTEENTH CENTURY). 
South Kensington Museum. 


IV 

THE DOUBLET AND HOSE 

The absence of wrinkle or fold, alluded to in the 
above quotation, is commonly suggestive of the 
modern spirit in dress. The first thing an artist 
does in painting a figure in hose is to indicate the 
little wrinkles or folds at the knee and ankle. This, 
as serving two purposes, first as a decorative enrich¬ 
ment to the limb, and secondly as indicating, 
together with the colour of the material, the fact that 
the limb is clothed. There are, however, such things 
as “ fleshings,” which are made of some material 
possessing elasticity, and so reducing the wrinkles 
and folds to a minimum ; but if there is one thing 
more than another which is characteristic of clothing 
or drapery, it is its folds —their constant and endless 
change varying with every movement. The ideal of 
modern tailoring appears to be something which 
shall have as near as possible the appearance of a 
deal board, to eliminate as far as possible the fold¬ 
ings of drapery with their infinite variety and almost 
endless play of light and shade. 

Ill 







I 13 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


With the doublet and hose we deal with a com¬ 
paratively recent period, when dress generally 
assumed a more formal character, and the loose tunic 
gave, place to the more closely fitting doublet. 

Long before this, however, the sleeves had 
developed in various ways, in strange and fantastic 
shapes. In the reign of Richard II.— 

“ Cut worke was great both in Court and townes, 

Bothe in men’s hoodes and also in their gownes, 

Brouduri and furre and goldsmith’s worke all 
newe 

In many a wyse each day they did renewe.” 

Harding’S Chronicle. 

The tight sleeves of the reigns of the three 
Edwards had given place to a sleeve of more ample 
proportions. The monk of Evesham speaks of 
“ pokys ” shaped like a bagpipe : “ The devil’s 
receptacles, for whatever was stolen could be popped 
into them.” 

The “ cut work ” above alluded to was extremely 
fantastic, the jagged edgings of the sleeves, and, 
indeed, the rest of the costume, taking the shape of 
the serrations of leaves, as well as other ornamental 
devices. 

In the reign of Edward IV. the short jackets, 
doublets, or pourpoints, were provided with closely 
fitting sleeves, which were divided at the elbow and 
shoulder, allowing the shirt or under-garment to appear 
as puffing, tied with ribbons at these points, and laced 
underneath up the whole length of the arm. 

" Embroidery. 


THE DOUBLET AND HOSE 


II3 

Another development of the sleeve, which lasted 
for a long period, was the addition of an outer sleeve 
with a slit in the middle to allow of the arm with its 



FIGURE FROM THE MIRACLE OF ST. BERNARD. 
By Fiorenzo di Lorenzo^ Pinacoteca, Pej'ngia. 


tight sleeve being passed through, the rest of the 
sleeve hanging down. This was ornamented in a 


8 







CHATS ON COSTUME 


114 

variety of ways, either by edgings of fur or by 
embroidery. 

Hose, that is, the more or less tightly fitting nether 
garments, be they breche, hosen, or what not, have 
been worn from a very early period. An illustration 
is given, from Hope’s “ Costume of the Ancients,” of 
Paris on Mount Ida, in which he is figured as wearing a 
closely fitting garment which covers the whole body 
and limbs, being buttoned all the way up the legs 
and arms ; a short tunic, also buttoned up the front, 
being worn over this dress. A similar tightly fitting 
dress was, in fact, worn by the Amazonian women. 

The cross-gartering, worn by the Goths, Franks, 
Anglo-Saxons, and other nations, is referred to under 
the “ shoe,” of which it usually formed a part. Some 
kind of hose, stockings, or bandages was invariably 
worn underneath the gartering, which often extended 
the whole length of the leg. This cross-gartering 
probably originated with the practice among the 
peasants of enswathing the legs with hay-bands. 

The short trouser of the Normans, or tunic and 
trouser in one, with short sleeves attached, of which 
so many examples occur in the Bayeux tapestry, is a 
garment which has puzzled many writers, on account 
of the apparent difficulty of putting it on. It appears 
to have been put on from below upwards, by being 
drawn on the thighs, and afterwards putting the arms 
in the sleeves. In the illustration given of a similar 
dress (p. 116), the metal plates or pieces of leather 
which serve as armour are added to the front of the 
dress only. The cross-gartering in this instance 
would probably not reach above the knees. " 


THE DOUBLET AND HOSE 


115 

From the Norman period onwards, tight hose con¬ 
tinued to be worn, and presented little variation 
except in the matter of colour and material. The 



PARIS ON MOUNT IDA. 

From Hope's “ Costume of the AncientsF 


parti-coloured hose of the Plantagenet period and 
later called forth many strictures from the satirists 











CHATS ON COSTUME 


116 


and moralists, chiefly clerical, of the time. “ The red 
side of a gentleman, they declared, gave them the 
idea of his having been half roasted, or that he and 
his dress were afflicted by St. Anthonys fire !” ^ 

This parti-colouring pre¬ 
sented many variations. 
The legs were either plain, 
dark and light alternately, 
of various colours, black 
and red, black and yellow ; 
or a variation of one colour, 
red, yellow, or grey, as the 
case may be; or one leg 
was striped in various 
ways ; or the parti-colour¬ 
ing would assume various 
forms, as a zig-zag on the 
thigh, or calf, or both ; in 
fact, the leg was regarded 
as a field for the dress 
designer to exercise his 
ingenuity in the matter of 
contrast, upon the principle 
of what is known in orna¬ 
ment as counterchange. 

In Field’s play of “A 
Woman is a Weathercock,” 
1612, one of the characters 
exclaims, “ Indeed, there’s reason there should be 
some difference in my legs, for one cost me twenty 
pounds more than the other.” 

' Fairholt, “ Costume in England.” 



ANGLO-SAXON RETAINER. 






































THE DOUBLET AND HOSE 11 / 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century a new 
development appears, which began as an upper gar¬ 
ment reaching only to the knees, also at this period 
called hose, upper stocks, and “ trawses,” which were 
puffed, slashed, and embroidered in various ways ; 
this was the precursor of the breeches^ or trunk-hose, 
which by the end of the century had developed to 
such enormous proportions. 

Numerous examples of the “slashed” period will 
be found in the drawings by Holbein and Durer, and 
the engravings by Hans Burgkmair. The “slashings,” 
which may be regarded as ornament in relief, pre¬ 
sented as many variations as did the flat ornament 
of the earlier period on the plain surface of the leg. 
The garment v/as either slashed downwards, hori¬ 
zontally, or diagonally, and occasionally slashed to 
such an extent that it appeared merely as a system 
of ribbons. Variety of colour was arrived at either 
by the under-garment, stocking, or hose being of a 
different hue to the upper ; or by a system of puffing, 
in which another or third colour was introduced. 
The puffing was also of a different material, either of 
silk or other light material, while the upper or slash¬ 
ing was of cloth or velvet. 

It was an exceedingly rich, ornate, and fantastic 
period ; the jerkin, or body garment, together with 
the sleeves, were also cut and slashed on the same 
principle as the lower garment, or vice versa, the 
slashings on the body usually appearing diagonally 
on either side. In two female portraits, however, by 
Holbein at Basle, the slashings appear perpen¬ 
dicularly underneath the breast, the sleeve being 
slashed on the same principle. 


8 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


The greatest richness of slashing always appears 
in the sleeve, a common form being to slash the 
sleeve in ribbons, which hang loose from the shoulder 
to the elbow. In the instances of several of the 
foot soldiers in Hans Burgkmair’s “Triumphs of 
Maximilian,” the outer sleeve is simply cut to 
ribbons, which stream loosely from the shoulder; 
and it seems, indeed, a little curious that at present, 
when all sorts of devices are employed for the 
purpose of producing variety, that some fashion of 
this sort has not been adopted for women. It repre¬ 
sents, however, the most extreme development of 
the slash; it would be impossible to carry the 
principle farther. 

We now arrive at the period of the enormous 
trunk-hose, temp. Elizabeth and James I., of which 
an example of their highest development appears in 
the illustration of “ Knightly Pastimes—Hawking, 
1575,” and in which the middle of the body appears 
inflated like a balloon, the “ bombasting ” of the 
breeches being carried to its utmost limit. Their 
gipcieres are well in evidence in each instance. This 
article of costume was, no doubt, originally a game 
bag, but was afterwards generally used as a pocket 
or pouch— 

“ An anlas and a gipser al of silke 
Heng at his gerdul white as morne mylke.” 

Chaucer 

The trunk-hose are,according to Stubbes (“Anatomy 
ot Abuse”), of three kinds—the French, the Gallic, 
and the Venetian hosen. The French hose “are of 



KNIGHTLY PASTIMES : HAWKING, 1575- 



















































20 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


two divers making; the common sort contain length, 
breadth, and sideness sufficient, and they are made 
very round ; the other sort contain neither length, 
breadth, nor sideness proportionable, being not past 
a quarter of a yard on the side, whereof some be 
paned or striped, cut and drawn out with costly 
ornaments, with caniorts adjoined, reaching down 
beneath the knees. 

“ The Gallic hosen are made very large and wide, 
reaching down to the knees only, with three or four 
gardes apiece laid down along the thigh of either 
hose. The Venetian hosen reach beneath the knee 
to the gartering'place of the leg, where they are tied 
finely with silken points, and laid on also with rows 
or gardes, as the other before. And yet notwith¬ 
standing, all this is not sufficient, except they be 
made of silk, velvet, satin, damask, and other precious 
stuffs besides ; so that it is a small matter to bestow 
twenty nobles, ten pounds, twenty pounds, forty 
pounds, yea, an hundred pounds, upon one pair of 
breeches; and yet this is thought no abuse neither.” 

It has been stated by various writers that silk hose, 
i.e., stockings of silk, were unknown in England prior 
to the middle of the sixteenth century. However 
this may be, silk stockings were, in the reign of 
Edward VI., considered as a gift worthy of a king’s 
acceptance ; it is recorded that Sir Thomas Gresham 
(whose portrait appears on p. 121) presented this 
monarch with a pair of long Spanish silk hose. 

In the inventory of the wardrobe of Henry VIH., 
taken after his decease, appears : “ One pair of short 
hose, of black silk and gold woven together; one 



SIR THOMAS GRESHAM, I519-I579. 


Sir Antonio More, National Portrait Gallery. 











122 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


pair of hose, of purple silk and Venice gold, woven 
like unto a cawl, and lined with blue silver sarsenet, 
edged with a passemain of purple silk and of gold, 
wrought at Milan ; one pair of hose of white silk and 
gold knit, bought of Christopher Millener ; six pair 
of black silk hose knit.” 

We learn from Stow that Mistress Montague, the 
Queen’s silk-woman, presented Elizabeth with “ a 
pair of black knit silk stockings, which pleased her 
so well, that she would never wear any cloth hose 
afterwards.” 

The “ bombasting” of the trunk-hose (the word is 
usually applied to the doublet, but may be applied 
equally well to the trunk-hose) was effected by means 
of a stuffing of rags, wool, tow, hair, and even bran. 
Holinshed relates a story of a man “ who is said to 
have exhibited the whole of his bed and table furniture, 
taken from these extensive receptacles.” The name 
trunk-hose would seem a peculiarly appropriate one ! 
The story is probably apocryphal (although quite 
plausible) of the young man who, engaged in 
animated, and apparently rather excited conversation 
with several ladies, caught his trunk-hose in a nail, 
and let out the bran, the hose collapsing suddenly, 
to the consternation of their wearer and the corre¬ 
sponding amusement of the ladies. 

Ben Jonson, “ Every Man out of his Humour,” 
thus recounts a misfortune which happened to 
Fastidio in a duel: “ I had on a gold cable hatband, 
then new come up, of massie goldsmith’s work, 
which I wore about a murrey French hat, the brims 
of which were thick embroidered with gold twist and 



Photo by] 


[^Emeiy Walker. 


I’HILIl’ II. OF SPAIN, 1527-1598 
National Portrait Gallery. 







124 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


spangles; I had an Italian cut-work band, orna¬ 
mented with pearls, which cost three pounds at the 
Exchange. . . . He, making a reverse blow, falls upon 
my embossed girdle—I had thrown off the hangers 
a little before ; strikes off a skirt of a thick satin 
doublet I had, lined with four taffataes ; cuts off two 
panes of embroidered pearls ; rends through the 
drawings out of tissue ; enters the lining, and skips 
the flesh ; and not having leisure to put off my silver 
spurs, one of the rowels catched hold of the ruffle of 
my boot, it being Spanish leather, and subject to tear; 
overthrows me, and rends me two pairs of stockings, 
that I had put on being a raw morning—a peach- 
colour and another.” 

In the same play, Fungoso, reckoning up the price 
of Fastidio’s dress, says ; “ Let me see ; the doublet 
—say fifty shillings the doublet—and between three 
and four pounds the hose,—then the boots, hat, and 
band ;—some ten or eleven pounds will do it all.” 

By the year 1583 the trunks are rifled of their 
contents in order to provide stuffing for the doublet. 
It will be noticed in the cut of knightly pastimes 
that the girdle meets at a point in front. This shape 
was emphasised, the doublet protruded in front, and 
hung down for some distance, and the peas-cod 
bellied doublet was developed. We must again turn 
to our old “ anatomist ” Stubbes : “ Certain I am there 
was never any kind of apparel invented that could 
more disproportion the body of a man than their 
doublets with great bellies do, hanging down beneath 
the groin, as I have said, and stuffed with four or 
five, or six pounde of bombast at the least. I say 



1LLUSTR1S.SIMI G E N E RO S I S S I M 1 QU E PRI.HeNRICI 

' MAGNA^. Britannia et Hybernta princiims, 

Vera Eftigies . 


HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES. 


Engraved by Simon Easse, 1612, 






























26 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


nothing of what their doublets be made; some of 
satin, taffata, silk, grograine, chamlet, gold, silver, 
and what not ; slashed, jagged, cut, carved, pinched, 
and laced with all kinds of costly lace of divers and 
sundry colours, of all which, if I could stand upon 
particularly, rather time than matter would be want¬ 
ing.” The peas-cod bellied doublet is still per¬ 
petuated in the person of our esteemed contemporary, 
Mr. Punch. 

An excellent example of the trunk-hose of the 
latter part of the reign of James I. appears in the 
engraved portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales. The 
hose consists of a series of richly embroidered straps 
discovering the silk or velvet trunk in the narrow 
intervals between. 

With the reign of the “ martyr King” Charles, both 
peas-cod bellied doublets and trunk-hose disappear, 
and the costume of this period is strikingly pictur¬ 
esque. Charles was a man of cultivated taste, and 
handsome to boot; he undoubtedly influenced the 
costume of his time. The earliest engraved portraits, 
by PTancis Delaram and William Hole, exhibit him 
in long, loose breeches reaching to the knees, with 
the doublet still pointed at the waist. The more 
familiar costume of this monarch is, however, that 
which is seen in the various portraits by Vandyke. 
The costume of the Cavaliers is well described in 
a little book on British costume published in the 
“ Library of Entertaining Knowledge ” in 1834 : “ It 
consisted of a doublet of silk, satin, or velvet, with 
large loose sleeves, slashed up the front; the collar, 
covered by a falling band of the richest point lace. 


THE doublet and HOSE 


127 


with that peculiar edging now called Vandyke; a 
short cloak was worn carelessly on one shoulder. 
The long breeches, fringed or pointed, as we have 
already mentioned, met the tops of the wide boots, 
which were also ruffled with lace or lawn. A broad- 
leafed Flemish beaver hat, with a rich hatband and 
plume of feathers, was set on one side of the head, 
and a Spanish rapier, hung from a magnificent bald- 
rick or sword-belt, worn sashwise over the right 
shoulder.” 

We now arrive at the period of the dandiacal 
Pepys, who describes with great unction the various 
changes and details of his costume. On September 
13, 1660, the Duke of Gloucester died of the small¬ 
pox “ by the great negligence of the doctors.” He 
was buried on the 21st at Westminster, and on the 
22nd our chronicler “ purchased a pair of short black 
stockings to wear over a pair of silk ones for mourn¬ 
ing.” On April 23, 1661, the occasion of the King’s 
going from the Tower to Whitehall, he rose with the 
lark, made himself as fine as he could, and put on his 
velvet coat, the first day that he put it on, “ though 
made half a year ago.” 

“ September 2 <^th, 1661.—This day I put on my 
half cloth black stockings, and my new coate of the 
fashion, which pleases me well, and with my beaver 
I was (after office was done) ready to go to my Lord 
Mayor’s feast, as we were all invited.” 

The long laced coats, familiar during the latter part 
of the reign of the “ Merry Monarch ” and the 
succeeding reign, had already come into vogue. On 
May II, 1662, Pepys repaired in the afternoon to 


128 


CHATS OH COSTUME 


Whitehall, and “ walked in the parke,” where he saw 
the King, “ now out of mourning in a suit laced with 
gold and silver, which it was said was out of fashion.’’ 

The costume of the masses during the Common¬ 
wealth and Restoration, was the well-known knee 
breeches and stockings, with doublet or jerkin. 

In a poem called “Wit Restored,” c. 1658, is 
described the holiday dress of a countryman when 
courting :— 

“ And first chill put on my Zunday parell 
That’s lac’t about the Quarters ; 

With a pair of buckram slopps. 

And a vlanting pair of garters. 

With a sword tide vast to my side. 

And my grandfather’s dugen and dagger. 

And a peacock’s veather in my capp. 

Then, oh, how I shall swagger ! ” 

About the year 1658 petticoat breeches crossed 
the silver streak from Versailles, and became the 
vogue at the Court of Charles II. Randal Holme, 
writing in 1659, describes the dress as follows :— 
“ A short-waisted doublet and petticoat breeches, the 
lining being lower than the breeches and tied above 
the knees ; the breeches are ornamented with ribands 
up to the pocket, and half their breadth upon 
the thigh ; the waistband is set about with ribands, 
and the shirt hanging out over them.” The petti¬ 
coat breeches were not ridiculous in themselves— 
the modern Scotch kilt, which is an extremely 
picturesque and even reasonable costume, is made 
upon precisely the same principle ; it was the absurd 



From Jacqucmin. 


9 





YORK. S, r. 














30 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


lace ruffles, which hung drooping below the knee, 
which were worn with the petticoats during the 
earlier period, and in which Charles II. is figured in 
Heath’s Chronicle, 1662, which made the costume 
a banality. The figure of the exquisite of 1670 from 
Jacquemin wears the petticoat breeches, but without 
the ruffles or frills at the knees. It must be confessed, 
however, that the gentleman possesses a sufficiency 
of frill! 

Petticoat breeches had disappeared by the end of 
the reign of Charles II., and we have now to deal 
with another distinct change in the national costume. 
In an inventory of apparel of Charles II. in 1679 
appears a suit of clothes of one material, 
and consisting of coat, waistcoat, and breeches. 
William III. is figured in 1694 in a long laced 
coat with enormous sleeve cuffs, the waistcoat almost 
as long as the coat, with large flaps and pockets also 
richly laced, the nether garments being knee breeches 
and stockings with buckled shoes, the hat cocked 
according to the fancy of the wearer. This coat, 
indeed, has, with variations, existed up to the present 
time. The gold lacings, the rows of buttons down 
the front, the huge cuffs, indeed, have vanished ; but 
the modern coat is, fundamentally, the same as its 
earliest prototype. The two buttons at the back, 
which now serve no purpose other than an ornamental 
one, once buttoned up the flaps, and constitute the 
last remains of the coat’s former glories. 

Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the 
coat fits tightly to the body, the skirts being long 
and ample, and made to stand out stiffly by being 



From an old print in tho British Museum 































132 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


lined with buckram ; the large Kevenhuller hat has 
given place to one of much more moderate pro¬ 
portions. 

The fop of the day is thus ridiculed by Diana in 
the play of “ Lionel and Clarissa,” by Isaac Bicker- 
staff, 1768 :— 

“ Ladies, pray admire a figure. 

Fait selon le dernier gout. 

First, his hat, in size no bigger 
Than a Chinese woman’s shoe ; 

Six yards of ribbon bind 
His hair en baton behind ; 

While his foretop’s so high. 

That in the crown he may vie 
With the tufted cockatoo. 

Then his waist so long and taper 
’Tis an absolute thread-paper ; 

Maids, resist him, you that can. 

Odd’s life, if this is all th’ affair. 

I’ll clap a hat on, club my hair. 

And call myself a man.” 

The short hair and large bishop’s sleeves of the 
clergy are satirised in the same play :— 

“ Lauk ! Madam, do you think, when Mr. Lionel’s 
a clergyman, he’ll be obliged to cut off his hair? 
I’m sure it will be a thousand pities, for it is the 
sweetest colour! and your great pudding-sleeves. 
Lord 1 they’ll quite spoil his shape, and the fall of his 
shoulders. Well, Madam, if I was a lady of large 
fortune. I’ll be hanged if Mr. Lionel should be a 
parson, if I could help it.” 


V 


THE 

KIRTLE 

OR PETTICOAT 


Falstaff. What trade art thou, Feeble? 

“ Feeble. A woman’s tailor, sir. 

‘‘Shallow. Shall I prick him, sir? 

“ Falstaff. You may; but if he had been a man’s tailor he would 
have pricked you—Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy’s 
battle, as thou hast done in a woman’s petticoat ? 

“ Feeble. I will do my good will, sir ; you can have no more. 

“ Falstaff. Well said, good w^oman’s tailor! well said, courageous 
Feeble ! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most 
magnanimous mouse—Prick the woman’s tailor well. Master Shallow ; 
deep, Master Shallow.” 


V 


THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT 

Tpie kirtle or petticoat is in reality a development 
of the tunic. It is the tunic which has become a 
closely fitting bodice, with long draperies, more or 
less formal, attached. The names of the different 
portions of dress have at different periods varied 
almost indefinitely. The first item of the habit of 
the Order of the Garter is successively described as 
tunic, coat, surcoat, and kirtle. 

The kirtle, therefore, takes up the story of costume 
from the time when the loose tunic gave place to 
a more formal attire—broadly speaking, from the 
Norman Conquest. 

During the eleventh century, however, woman’s 
dress was still the loose tunic, the principal change 
being in the remarkable development of the sleeves, 
which, although close fitting along the whole length 
of the arm, either had an extraordinary attachment 
at the wrist in the form of a bag or pouch, or were 
abnormally extended and widened at the wrist and 
tied in knots to avoid treading on them. This 
fashion is satirised in the figure of the devil from 
us 


1 


136 CHATS ON COSTUME 

the Cotton MSS., given in the introductory chat 
of this work. 

In the “ Romauntof the Rose,” written at the close 
of the thirteenth century, John de Meun relates the 
story of Pygmalion, representing him as adorning 
the statue he had created with a succession of the 
garments of the fashion of the period of the poem, 
with the purpose of discovering which became her 
best:—“ He clothed her in many guises ; in robes, 
made with great skill, of the finest silk and woollen 
cloths ; green, azure, and brunette, ornamented with 
the -richest skins of ermines, minivers, and greys : 
these being taken off, other robes were tried upon 
her, of silk, cendal, mallequins, mallebruns, satins, 
diaper, and camelot, and all of divers colours. Thus 
decorated, she resembled a littl^ angel; her coun¬ 
tenance was so modest. Then, again, he put a 
wimple upon her head, and over that a coverchief, 
which concealed the wimple, but hid not her face. 
All these garments were then laid aside for gowns, 
yellow, red, green, and blue; and her hair was 
handsomely disposed in small braids, with threads of 
silk and gold adorned with little pearls, upon which 
was placed, with great precision, a crestine ; and over 
the crestine, a crown or circle of gold, enriched with 
precious stones of various sizes. Her little ears were 
decorated with two beautiful pendants of gold, and 
her necklace was confined to her neck by two clasps 
of gold. Her girdle was exceedingly rich, and to it 
was attached an aulmoniere, or small purse, of great 
value.” 

In the reign of Edward 111 , the close-fitting 



THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT 


137 


bodice appears, with the girdle over the hips, the 
sleeves either tight or provided with an upper sleeve 
with long tippets or streamers from the elbow. 
Later a kind of “ spencer ” ^ jacket, or waistcoat, was 
worn, faced and bordered with miniver or other fur. 
These “ spencer’’-like jackets lasted for a consider¬ 
able period. An example appears in the effigy of 
Joan of Navarre, Queen of 
Henry IV. A similar jacket 
again appears in the reign of 
Henry VI. 

The Italian cassone, or mar¬ 
riage chests, of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, furnish 
us with many examples of grace¬ 
ful dresses of a character pecu¬ 
liar to that period and nation, 
but which fashion obtained to 
some extent elsewhere ; a good 
deal of the grace of these things 
is due, however, to the fine con¬ 
vention adopted in the work of 
this period. A feature of this 
dress is the long wide sleeves the close fitting 
streaming from the shoulders, temp, edward hi. 
part sleeve and part cloak. The 

illustration which forms the heading of Chat IV. will 
serve to give some idea of this dress. 

At the commencement of the Tudor period the 

* The term ‘‘ spencer ” is a modern one, and is said to 
originate from an accident to Lord Spencer, in which he lost 
his coat-tails during a hunt, temp, George III. 










138 CHATS ON COSTUME 

costume of the ladies is still that of the period of 
high head-dresses of the middle of the century. The 
waist is still high and narrow, the gown long, ample 
and flowing, often edged with fur, and with fur 
collar and cuffs. By the end of the reign of Henry 
VIIL, however, costume had undergone a marked 
change. The waist suddenly drops, the stomacher 
appears, together with the bell-shaped open gown, 
with richly embroidered petticoat, which lasted for a 
considerable time—to the time of Charles I., in fact. 
Both cut gown and inner petticoat were ornamented, 
either by woven patterns or embroidery, the richest 
ornaments being reserved for the petticoat; the turn¬ 
overs or “ collars ” of the skirts being plain, in contrast 
to the rich ornaments of the upper surface. 

An interesting portrait of Queen Mary (Red Mary) 
by Lucas de Heere, in the possession of Sir William 
Quilter, was recently shown at the exhibition at the 
Guildhall of the works of Flemish painters. She 
wears a black dress with stiffened collar behind, 
ornamented with gold embroidery, open at the neck, 
disclosing a pink bodice also richly embroidered, the 
sleeves furred at the elbows. 

The era of petticoat inflation began about this 
time ; it was such a remarkable development that 
the consideration of it is reserved for a separate 
chat. 

In Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1577, appears an amusing 
cut of ‘ Makbeth and Banquho ” met by “ the iij 
weird Sisters or Feiries.” “ Makbeth ” is figured as 
wearing an astonishing Life Guard helmet and plume. 
“The iij weird Feiries” are fascinating creatures. 


A LADY OF BASLE. 


Holbein. 







140 CHATS ON COSTUME 

gaily dressed in ornamented kirtles, with panniers, 
puffed sleeves and shoulders, and, in one instance, 
with a remarkable peaked turban with streamer on 
her head. 

The dress of the Tudor period was magnificent 
beyond description. In- a wardrobe account of 
Henry VIII., seven yards of purple cloth-of-gold 
damask is apportioned for a kirtle for Catherine of 
Arragon. As in the case of the men, the sleeves 
were invariably the richest portion of women’s dress. 
“Amongst the inventories of this reign we find: 
three pair of purple satin sleeves for women ; one 
pair of linen sleeves, paned with gold over the arm, 
quilted with black silk, and wrought with flowers 
between the panes and at the hands ; one pair of 
sleeves of purple gold tissue damask wire, each 
sleeve tied with aglets of gold ; one pair of crimson 
satin sleeves, four buttons of gold being set on each 
sleeve, and in every button nine pearls.” 

This extravagance was more than continued during 
the reign of Elizabeth. It is thus satirised by 
Beaumont and Fletcher in “ Four Plays in One.” 

“ I went then to Vanity, whom I found 
Attended by an endless troop of taylors, 

Mercers, embroiderers, feather-makers, fumers ; 

All occupations opening like a mart, 

That serve to rig the body out with bravery ; 

And through the room new fashions flew like flies. 
In thousand gaudy shapes ; Pride waiting on her, 
And busily surveying all the breaches 
Time and decaying nature had wrought in her, 


THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT I 4 I 

Which still with art she piec’d again, and strength¬ 
ened. 

I told your wants ; she shew’d me gowns and 
headtires, 

Embroider’d waste coats, smocks seamed through 
with cut-work. 

Scarfs, mantles, petticoats, muffs, powders, paintings. 

Dogs, monkies, parrots; all of which seem’d to 
show me 

The way her money went.” 

The beauties of the Court of the Merry Monarch 
are made familiar to us by the pencil of Sir Peter 
Lely.^ The age was distinguished in the case of the 
women not so much for the magnificence of its 
costume as for the scantiness of it. It was to a 
certain extent a return to the simplicity of Nature ! 

“If,” says Addison, writing in the Spectator,'' 
survey the pictures of our great-grandmothers in Queen 
Elizabeth’s time, we see them clothed down to the 
very wrists, and up to the very chin. The hands and 
face were the only samples they gave of their beautiful 
persons. The following age of females made larger 
discoveries of their complexion. They first of all 
tucked up their garments to the elbow, and, notwith¬ 
standing the tenderness of the sex, were content for 
the information of mankind to expose their arms to 
the coldness of the air, and injuries of the weather.” 

They affected a mean between dress and nakedness, 

^ ‘‘ This day I did first see the Duke of York’s room of 
pictures of some Maids of Honour, done by Lilly; good, but 
not like.”— Pepys's Diary. 


142 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


which occasioned the publication of a book entitled 
“A Just and Seasonable Reprehension of Naked 
Breasts and Shoulders,” with a preface by Richard 
Baxter, temp. Charles 11 . 

Herrick’s lines may be said to foreshadow the 
period :— 

“ A sweet disorder in the dress 
Kindles in clothes a wantonness ; 

A lawn about the shoulders thrown 
Into a fine distraction ; 

An erring lace, which here and there 
Enthrals the crimson stomacher ; 

A cuff neglected, and thereby 
Ribbons to flow confusedly ; 

A winning wave, deserving note 
In the tempestuous petticoat. 

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie 
I see a wild civility ;— 

Do more bewitch me, than when art 
Is too precise in every part.” 

The remarks of our diarist Pepys on the subject of 
dress are always entertaining, although he displays 
perhaps less interest in his wife’s dresses than in his 
own. 

''April i^tk, 1662.—With my wife, by coach, to the 
new Exchange, to buy her some things ; where we 
saw some new-fashion petticoats of sarcanett with a 
black broad lace printed round the bottom and before, 
very handsome, and my wife had a mind to one of 
them.” 

His wife’s dressmaker’s bill is apparently a much 



\' 















144 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


less serious item than his own dress expenses, which 
is perhaps the reverse of the present order of things. 

“ October yoth, 1663.—To my great sorrow find my¬ 
self ;^43 worse than I was the last month. . . . But 
it hath chiefly arisen from my layings-out in clothes 
for myself and wife ; viz., for her about £\ 2 ^ and for 
myself ^^55—or thereabouts, (!) having made myself 
a velvet cloak, two new cloth skirts, a new shag gown, 
trimmed with gold buttons and twist, with a new hat, 
and silk tops for my legs, and many other things, 
being resolved, henceforward, to go like myself” (I I). 

March 2 nd, 1669.—My wife this day put on her 
first French gown, called a Sac, which becomes her 
very well.” 

May Day of the same year: “ My wife extra¬ 
ordinary fine with her flowered tabby gown that 
she made two years ago, now laced exceeding pretty; 
and indeed was fine all over. And mighty earnest 
to go, though the day was very lowering; and she 
would have me put on my fine suit—which I did ” (I). 

A certain affectation by the ladies of male 
costume made its appearance towards the close of 
the century. Laced and buttoned coats and waist¬ 
coats were worn, together with a smartly cocked hat 
surmounted with a feather. It also appeared earlier, 
during the reign of Elizabeth, and was satirised by 
Stubbes, and later, in the Spectator, by Addison. We 
picture Die Vernon in a habit of this kind, which was 
chiefly worn for riding, but also for walking. P'ield- 
ing describes the appearance of Sophia Western at 
the inn at Upton in a similar habit. 

The rigidity of the bodice at the commencement 



MISS LEWIS. 

Engraved by James Macardell. 


10 






146 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


of the Hanoverian period was an echo of an earlier 
time, when Good Queen Bess strutted it in wheeled 
farthingale. It was strongly fortified with whalebone 
strips, and formed a V in front. 

One of the chief characteristics of the dresses of 
this period was the naturalistic floral patternings, 
which were seen everywhere, and even invaded the 
dress of the men, whose waistcoats were gay with 
embroidered flowers. This floral patterning was the 
outward and visible sign of the general interest which 
was then taken in natural form. Linnaeus, at Upsala, 
was propounding his botanical system ; gardening 
was generally popular. Mrs. Delany thus describes 
a dress which she saw at Court in February, 1741, 
and which is sufficiently indicative of the generally 
prevailing taste : “ The Duchess of Queensberry’s 
clothes pleased me best ; they were white satin 
embroidered—the bottom of the petticoat brown 
hills covered with all sorts of weeds, and every 
breadth had an old stump of a tree that ran up 
almost to the top of the petticoat, broken and ragged 
and worked with brown chenille, round which twined 
nastersians, ivy, honeysuckles, periwinkles, convol¬ 
vuluses, and all sorts of twining flowers, which spread 
and covered the petticoat ; vines with the leaves 
variegated as you have seen them by the sun, all 
rather smaller than nature, which makes them look 
very light ; the robings and facings were little green 
banks with all sorts of weeds; and the sleeves 
and the rest of the gown loose, twining branches 
of the same sort as those on the petticoat. Many 
of the leaves were finished with gold, and part of 







148 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the stumps of the trees looked like the gilding of 
the sun.” 

The quilted petticoat with figured panniers which 
is associated with the name of Dolly Varden is a 
charming dress of the rustic or idyllic sort. Like the 
rigid bodice, it was a development of the dress of an 
earlier period ; it was, in fact, the stiff outer kirtle of 
the Elizabethan and Stuart periods looped up in 
folds. 

The fashionable luxuries of the latter half of the 
eighteenth century are thus commented upon in the 
London Magazine of February, 1773 :— 

“ The modes of dress, as well as those of house¬ 
keeping, are articles of incredible expense. Here the 
ladies are beyond description extravagant. 

“ They have spring and summer, autumn and 
winter silks ; brocades, gold and silver stuffs ; some 
of which are bought at the enormous price of thirty 
guineas a yard. The birthday suit is never worn a 
second time. Their heads are adorned with Dresden 
and Mechlin lace, enriched with jewels of immense 
value : large estates hang upon their ears. How 
brilliant are their diamond necklaces and stomachers, 
their watches, and other trinkets !—their very buckles 
are set with pearls and precious stones.” 

A character in “ Bon Ton ; or. High Life Above 
Stairs,” by David Garrick, 1775, exclaims :— 

“ This fellow would turn rake and maccaroni if he 
was to stay here a week longer—bless me, what 
dangers are in this town at every step! O, that I 
were once settled safe again at Trotley-place !— 
nothing to save my country would bring me back 


THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT 1 49 

again : my niece, Lucretia, is so be-fashioned and 
be-devilled, that nothing, I fear, can save her ; how¬ 
ever, to ease my conscience, I must try ; but what 
can be expected from the young women of these 
times, but sallow looks, wild schemes, saucy words, 
and loose morals!—they lie a-bed all day, sit up all 
night; if they are silent they are gaming ; and if 
they talk, ’tis either scandal or infidelity; and that 
they may look what they are, their heads are all 
feather, and round their necks are twisted rattlesnake 
tippets—O tempora, O mores ! ” 

In the Lady's Magazine for April, 1782, the 
following announcement of fashionable dress at 
Paris is given :— 

“The Queen of France has appeared at Versailles 
in a morning dress that has totally eclipsed the levee 
robe, and is said to be the universal rage. The robe 
is made of plain sattin, chiefly white, worn without a 
hoop, round, and a long train. It is drawn up in the 
front, on one side, and fastened with tassels of silver, 
gold, or silk, according to the taste of the wearer ; 
and this discloses a puckered petticoat of gauze or 
sarsenet, of a different colour. The sleeves are wide 
and short, drawn up near the shoulder with small 
tassels, or knots of diamonds ; under sleeves of the 
finest cambrick, full plaited, and trimmed at the 
elbow with Brussels or point, give infinite charms to 
the whole. The fastening of the waist is not straight 
down the stays, but gently swerved, and trimmed 
with narrow fur, as is the bottom of the robe. A round 
pasteboard hat, covered with the same sattin, and 
without any other ornaments than a diamond buckle, 


50 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


or an embroidered one, finishes the dress, which, it is 
said, will be worn through the summer, made of 
lighter materials.” 

The French Revolution was productive of many 
things—not the least of which was the change it 
brought in the matter of dress. The revival of 
classicism in costume during the Empire, which was 
to a great extent due to the influence of the painter 
David, was an echo of. the earlier classic revival in 
architecture, mainly represented in this country by 
the work of the brothers Adam, who designed, as 
well as architecture, carriages, furniture, plate, and 
even a sedan chair for Queen Charlotte. With the 
advent of the Revolution the fashion suddenly changes. 
The oft-quoted couplet— 

“ Shepherds, I have lost my waist ; 

Have ye seen my body ? ” 

a parody on a popular song, “ The Banks of Banna ” 
—expresses the disappearance of that portion of the 
body, which had previously been absurdly long. The 
ample flowered skirts of the middle of the century 
gave place to light gauze clinging coverings which 
exhibited as much of Nature’s form as was—desirable. 
The merveilleuses appeared in gossamer gowns, slit 
from the hips and buttoned at the knees after the 
fashion of the Macedonian girls alluded to in a pre¬ 
vious chat, the legs encased in fleshings. “ Behold 
her, that beautiful citoyenne, in costume of the ancient 
Greeks, such Greek as painter David could teach ; 
her sweeping tresses snooded by glittering antique 
fillet; bright-dyed tunic of the Greek woman ; her 



MADAME DE MOUCHY, IN BALL DRESS 
Engraved by Pie7'7'e-Louis Surugue. 










52 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


little feet naked as in antique statues, with mere 
sandals and winding strings of riband—defying the 
frost.” I 

“ English Costume from Pocket-books,” I 799 > 
of a Russian officer, who, having been accustomed at 
home to estimate the rank of 
a lady by the warmth of her 
clothing, offered a woman of 
fashion a penny, in Bond Street, 
under the impression that from 
her nakedness she must be a 



pauper 


The Empire gown is figured 
in the illustration of a walking 
dress, i8io. It lasted prac¬ 
tically until the advent of the 
crinoline in the forties, when it 
finally disappeared. There has 
been recent talk of its revival, 
but dancing men are found to 
be opposed to it, if for no 
other reason than the difficulty 
of knowing where to place 
their arms ; and dancing men 
are apparently a necessity. 

The really fashionable 
people are those who are 
This may at first sight seem 
a moment’s consideration will be 
sufficiently convincing. The Empress of Germany 


not in the fashion, 
a paradox, but 


Carlyle. 








THE KIRTLE OR PETTICOAT I 53 

gives an order to her dressmaker for four dresses, 
on the strict understanding that no others are to 
be made like them {vide daily paper). This is the 
genuine woman of fashion. The people who are 
“ in the fashion ” are the sheep. “ Bell-wether takes 
the leap and they all jump over.” In other words, 
there can be no really beautiful dress unless the 
spirit of individualism is fostered. Dress should 
“ express ” the wearer and provide an index as to 
character. Indeed, it does, as the spectacle of a 
woman or a man following blindly the dictates 
of fashion is sufficient evidence that he or she 
possesses no character at all. 

There is also a manner of dressing and of wearing, 
a certain elegance that distinguishes people of taste 
from the vulgar, which gives each portion of the dress 
its due importance, and imparts a harmony to the 
whole, as in the composition of a picture, which 
weaves every detail into one design and impresses 
the beholder as a masterpiece. 

Moreover, there is a charm and piquancy of manner 
quite apart from the dress itself, or even the personal 
beauty of the wearer, which distinguishes the fascinat¬ 
ing woman. A character in “ The Belle’s Stratagem ” 
exclaims—with what degree of truth the reader 
himself must determine: 

“ Pho ! thou hast no taste ! English beauty ! ’tis 
insipidity : it wants the zest, it wants poignancy, 
Frank ! Why, I have known a Frenchwoman, indebted 
to Nature for no one thing but a pair of decent eyes, 
reckon in her suit as many counts, marquisses, and 
petits maitres, as would satisfy three dozen of our 



PROMENADE COSTUME, 1 833. 


j 













PARIS EVENING DRESS, 1833 






156 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


first-rate toasts. I have known an Italian marquizina 
make ten conquests in stepping from her carriage, 
and carry her slaves from one city to another, whose 
real intrinsic beauty would have yielded to half the 
little grisettes that pace your Mall on a Sunday.” 



VI 


THE RISE 
AND FALL 
OF THE 
CRINOLINE 




‘For I will goe frocked and in a French hood, 

I will have my fine cassockes and my round verdingale.” 

Booke of Robin Conscience. 


THE CRINOLINE. 


From Jacqiiefuin. 


VI 

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CRINOLINE 

Fielding, in his description of the beauty and many 
graces of Sophia Western, feeling his subject to be 
more than ordinarily sublime, introduces his heroine 
“ with the utmost solemnity, with an elevation of 
style, and all the other circumstances proper to raise 
the veneration of the reader ”: “ H ushed be every 
ruder breath. May the heathen ruler of the winds 
confine in iron chains the boisterous limbs of noisy 
Boreas, and the sharp-pointed nose of bitter-biting 
Eurus. Do thou, sweet Zephyrus, rising from thy 
fragrant bed, mount the western sky and lead on 
those delicious gales, the charms of which call 
forth the lovely Flora from her chamber, perfumed 
with pearly dews, when on the first of June, her birth- 

159 



l6o CHATS ON COSTUME 

day, the blooming maid, in loose attire, gently trips it 
over the verdant mead, where every flower rises to do 
her homage, until the whole field becomes enamelled, 
and colours contend with sweets which shall ravish 
her most. 

“ So charming may she now appear; and you, the 
feathered choristers of nature, whose sweetest notes 
not even Handel can excel, tune your melodious 
throats to celebrate her appearance. From love 
proceeds your music, and to love it returns. Awake, 
therefore,” &c. 

If one were fortunate enough to possess the power 
of description and imagination of a Fielding, methinks 
the crinoline would provide a sufficiently inspiring 
theme. 

It has been said that Milton was a man from his 
birth. The crinoline, like Milton, is an exception to 
every law of development. It had, like Milton, 
neither infancy nor adolescence, but sprang full 
armed, like “ Athene from the brain of Zeus,” or 
perhaps, like Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” it 
never was born, but just “ growed ”—and it grew— 
like a mushroom (which indeed in form it somewhat 
resembles), in a night. Or, to adopt yet another 
comparison, like the sun, which bursts in the morning 
suddenly in its full refulgence, is obscured for a 
time by clouds, to blaze again in unabated splen¬ 
dour, and in its turn is again obscured, but only to 
reappear in glorious sunset. 

The crinoletta, which followed, may be described as 
the twilight or sweet afterglow—beautiful, tender as 
the blush on a maiden’s cheek, and almost as 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE. 
After Gainsborough, 


II 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


162 

evanescent, but with none of the glory of the 
preceding day. 

In the charming passage from Fielding above 
quoted, Love, it will be seen, figures as the presiding 
spirit. This is peculiarly appropriate to the present 
subject, for, be it known, Dan Cupid begat the crinoline. 
It is said to have been originally invented for the 
purpose of concealing the illicit amours of a Princess 
of Spain ; but singularly enough, and in a sort of 
contradictory spirit, is first identified with the august 
person of the “ Maiden Queen.” 

The earlier portraits of Elizabeth exhibit her in 
a dress similar to that of her sister and predecessor, 
and in an interesting portrait of Catherine Parr at 
Glendon Hall, Northamptonshire, this Queen appears 
in a richly embroidered petticoat widened at the base. 
A similar petticoat or kirtle, widened a little at the 
hips, is shown in the portrait of Mary, Queen of 
Scots, with Darnley (p. 169). The hooped petti¬ 
coat or vardingale, however, appears only in the 
later portraits of Elizabeth. In the famous print 
by William Rogers, of which a reproduction is 
given, she is figured in the great ruff with which she 
is most identified, the interminable stomacher, and 
the enormous wheel farthingale, with, as Walpole 
observes, “ a bushel of pearls bestrewed over the 
entire figure ” ; she also wears a long light mantle 
edged with lace, a portentous collar, also edged with 
lace, expanding like wings on either side of the head. 
She carries the ball and sceptre in her hands. 

The legend at the foot of the plate runs as 
follows :— 



t‘SdJ»tari ti'tTvinH.' j 

'Imiltilujc. _ D- . . 

^jtnk‘Vfyt'd.Inmtfd ttaadS: 


•^iZTxCr 


pr.rM Jaretr 


QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Froin an engraving by William Rogers. 



















164 CHATS ON COSTUME 

“ The admired Empresse through the worlde 
applauded 

For supreme virtues rarest imitation, 

Whose Scepters rule fame’s loud-voyc’d trumpet 
lawdeth 

Into the eares of every forraigne nation. 
Cannopey’d under powerfull angells vvinges 
To her Immortall praise sweete Science 
singes.” 

The great wheel farthingale was worn by the 
nobility during the latter half of the reign of 
Elizabeth, and during the whole of the succeeding 
reign. The engraving by Renold Elstracke of 
James I. and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, shows 
the latter in a farthingale, which in size and general 
structure is identical with that worn by Elizabeth. 
It is, however, box pleated round the top of the 
drum, the farthingale being divided in front and 
discovering the kirtle underneath. 

The following story is told by Bulwer in his 
“Pedigree of the English Gallant”: “When Sir 
Peter Wych was sent ambassador to the Grand 
Seignor from James L, his lady accompanied him 
to Constantinople, and the Sultaness having heard 
much of her, desired to see her ; whereupon Lady 
Wych, attended by her waiting women, all of them 
dressed in their great vardingales, which was the 
Court-dress of the English ladies at that time, waited 
upon her highness. The Sultaness received her 
visitor with great respect, but, struck with the 
extraordinary extension of the hips of the whole 



m 




yffiSuHtwy tbt^. 


/The Ih^h anjMmarek the jrace ^'Tk m^exeUene Pn'nifte AN*r2 Qjuene ef Great'Srittame. >j 

yGreatBrUtatne.^rarue.and IreLmJ .‘herne me 19 qflune.lf66.^ Tranee. and IrtlanA. Herne ^ CSieher i t--/ 7 4 ■ * | 


JAMES I. AND HIS QUEEN, ANNE OF DENMARK 

From an engraving by R. Elstracke. 


























1 66 CHATS ON COSTUME 

party, seriously inquired if that shape was peculiar 
to the natural formation of English women, and 
Lady Wych was obliged to explain the whole 
mystery of the dress, in order to convince her that 
she and her companions were no't really so deformed 
as they appeared to be.” 

In the reign of Charles I. the farthingale, although 
still worn by the lower gentry and citizens’ wives, 
is discarded by the upper classes, and disappears 
entirely; and it is not until the latter part of the 
reign of Queen Anne that it rises again, like the 
Phoenix from its own ashes, but in another form, 
however, that of the enormous hoop, which grew 
to such portentous proportions during the reigns 
of George I. and IL, the outstanding steel or 
whalebone foundation being mainly at the bottom 
of the skirt instead of at the hips. Sir Roger 
de Coverley thus expresses the difference between 
the earlier hooped petticoats and those of the era 
of the Spectator: “You see, sir, my great-great¬ 
grandmother has on the new-fashioned petticoat, 
except that the modern is gathered at the waist ; 
my grandmother appears as if she stood in a large 
drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if they were 
in a go-cart.” 

It is surprising to find in dress, as in ornamental 
design, the same ideas, the same ornamental motifs, 
occurring to the people of countries widely separate. 
There is a curious dress appropriated to the young 
women of Otaheite who are appointed to make 
presents from personas of rank to each other; one 
of these was deputed to present cloths to Captain 



FESTAL DRESS, OTAHEITE. 









1 68 ^CHATS ON COSTUME 

Cook on his last voyage. A representation of the 
dress is given in the engraving, which is from Cook’s 
Geography, i8oi. The proportions of the drum 
exceed even that of Queen Elizabeth ; in general 
shape, however, it is similar. It is decorated round 
the uppermost edge with ornamental festoons of 
feathers, &c., and constitutes the complete dress of 
the lady, with the exception of a sort of chemise 
which appears underneath the breasts, and, presum¬ 
ably, covers the loins and a portion of the lower 
limbs. 

The hoop petticoat now approaches its highest 
meridian; its re-appearance was duly announced 
by Addison, who, in No. 129 of the Spectator, 
relates an adventure which happened in a little 
country church in Cornwall: “ As we were in the 
midst of service, a lady, who is the chief woman 
of the place, and had passed the winter at London 
with her husband, entered the congregation in a 
little head-dress and a hooped petticoat. The people, 
who were wonderfully startled at such a sight, all 
of them rose up. Some stared at the prodigious 
bottom, and some at the little top, of this strange 
dress. In the meantime the lady of the manor 
filled the a 7 'ea of the church and walked up to the 
pew with an unspeakable satisfaction, amid the 
whispers, conjectures, and astonishments of the whole 
congregation.” 

Between 1740 and 1745 the hoops spread out 
at the sides extensively in oblong fashion, resembling 
a donkey carrying its panniers. Indeed, the simile 
of the donkey was a favourite one with the carica- 



jhr m-yf} illui^i*us licnry iMnify^Kirj^ iff'ScisiUnJy^^ rmfi^cdu^nt .yi.iriir^jjiTrii *^ScadenJ 

U sur Si^ucra^ne UrJ ,Ky UmcsJIr died at 7 . hrd Ktt^lAxtics.. She dtcd.if^S.anJ tntemi 


( ffthcr te ffurSeuc. 

uttfftnhed at% 


PORTRAITS OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, AND DARNLEY. 

From an engraving by R. Elstrackei 





























170 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


turists. In i860 Punch adopts the idea, and 
issues a warning to ladies who would ride in crino¬ 
lines on donkeys, and gives a cut of a lady in an 
enormous crinoline riding on a donkey, with nothing 
but the donkey’s hind legs seen below. 

A poetic description of ladies’ dresses in 1773 
directs : 

' “ Make your petticoats short, that a hoop eight 
yards wide 

May decently show how your garters are tied.” 

Indeed, the hoop of this period had attained to 
such enormous proportions that, as Fairholt observes, 
the figure of a lady was considerable; for they 
were now not only the better, but the larger, half 
of creation, and half a dozen men might be 
accommodated in the space occupied by a single 
lady.i 

In a print entitled “ The Review,” of the latter 
part of the reign of George II., the inconveniences 
of the hoop petticoat are exhibited in a variety of 
ways, and various methods for their remedy are 
suggested. One of the most ingenious is that of 
a coach with a moveable roof and a frame with 
pulleys to drop the ladies in from the top, in 
order to avoid the disarranging of their hoops 
which would necessarily attend their entrance by 
the door. 

Hoop petticoats disappeared early in the reign 
of George III., and the genius of extravagance then 
turned its attention to the head-dress. 

* Fairholt, ‘‘Costume in England.” 



“ don’t be afraid , my dear .” 
Engraved by Isidore-Stanilas Helman. 













1/2 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


In the expiring years of the fifties of the last 
century the crinoline proper appeared. There had 
been hints of it earlier, not to say threats, in the bell¬ 
shaped skirts which obtained in about 1835, of which 
the charming creature in the London promenade 
dress (p. 55) provides an example. 

The chief satirist of the crinoline is Punch, although, 
amongst others, an amusing skit on the difficulties 
and dangers of the crinoline appeared about 1870, 
with a number of coloured illustrations by “ Quiz,” 
now very rare. 

Punch appears to have been particularly impressed 
by the “roomy” character of the crinoline, as, in an 
amusing if somewhat laboured skit in the early days 
of i860, he unbosoms himself as follows : 

“ Among the million objections to the use of the 
wide petticoats not the least well-founded is the fact 
that they are used for purposes of shoplifting. This 
has many times been proved at the bar of the police 
courts, and we wonder that more notice has not been 
attracted to it. For ourselves, the fact is so impressed 
upon our mind, that when we ever come in contact 
with a Crinoline which seems more than usually 
wide, we immediately put down the wearer as a pick¬ 
pocket, and prepare ourselves at once to see her 
taken up. Viewing Crinoline, indeed, as an incen¬ 
tive to bad conduct, we forbid our wives and daughters 
to wear it when out shopping, for fear that it may 
tempt them to commit some act of theft. A wide 
petticoat is so convenient a hiding-place for stowing 
away almost any amount of stolen goods, that we 
cannot be surprised at finding it so used, and for 



KING AND MRS. BADDELEY 












74 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the mere sake of keeping them from roguery, the 
fewer women have it at their fingers’ ends the better. 
Some ladies have a monomania for thievery, and 
when they go on a day’s shopping can hardly keep 
their hands off what does not belong to them. 
Having a commodious receptacle in reach, wherein 
they may deposit whatever they may sack, they are 
naturally tempted to indulge in their propensity, 
by the chances being lessened that they will be 
found out. 

“ As an instance of how largely the large petticoats 
are used in acts of petty larceny, we may mention a 
small fact which has come within our knowledge, 
and which it may be to the interest of shopkeepers 
to know. Concealed beneath the skirts of a fashion¬ 
ably dressed female were, the other day, discovered 
by a vigilant detective the following choice proofs of 
her propensity to plunder: viz., twenty-three shawls, 
eleven dozen handkerchiefs, sixteen pairs of boots 
(fifteen of them made up with the military heel), a 
case of eau-de-Cologne, a ditto of black hair-dye, 
thirty pairs of stays, twenty-six chemises, five dozen 
cambric handkerchiefs, and eleven ditto silk, nineteen 
muslin collars, and four-and-forty crochet ones, a 
dressing case, five hair brushes (three of them made 
with tortoiseshell and two with ivory gilt backs), a 
pair of curling irons, eight bonnets without trimmings 
and nine-and-twenty with them, a hundred rolls of 
ribbon, half a hundredweight of worsted, ten dozen 
white kid gloves and twenty dozen coloured ones, 
forty balls of cotton, nine-and-ninety skeins of silk, a 
gridiron, two coal-scuttles, three packets of ham 


THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CRINOLINE 1/5 

sandwiches, twenty-five mince pies, half a leg of 
mutton, six boxes of French plums, ten ditto of 
bonbons, nine pates de foie gras, a dozen cakes of 
chocolate and nine of portable hare soup, a warming 
pan, five bracelets, a brace of large brass birdcages, 
sixteen bowls of goldfish, half a score of lapdogs, 
fourteen dozen lever watches, and an eight-day 
kitchen clock. 

“ After this discovery, who will venture to deny 
that Crinoline with shoplifters is comparable to 
charity, inasmuch as it may cover a multitude of 
sins ? ” 

A curious advertisement in the Illustrated Lofidon 
News of October lo, 1863, announces that— 
“ Ondina, or waved Jupons, do away with the un¬ 
sightly results of the ordinary hoops, and so perfect 
are the wave-like bands that a lady may ascend a 
steep stair, lean against a table, throw herself into an 
armchair, pass to a stall in the opera, or occupy a 
fourth seat in a carriage without inconvenience to 
herself or to others, or provoking rude remarks of the 
observers, thus modifying in an important degree all 
those peculiarities tending to destroy the modesty of 
English women, and lastly, it allows the dress to fall 
into graceful folds. Price 21s. Illustrations free.” 
With all these advantages, who would not wear a 
crinoline ? 

In the new year of i860 Punch gives a cut (“ Some 
good account at last ”) of a skater in pot-hat and 
pegtops, encircled by the framework of an enormous 
crinoline, cutting graceful figures upon the ice and 
exclaiming, “ Entirely my own idea, Harry—ease. 


176 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


elegance, and safety combined—I call it the skater’s 
friend.” “Some good account at last”? Unkind 
Mr. Punch ! Must we, then, measure the value of 
everything in this world by its bare utility? The 
crinoline will endure as a sweet solace to senses tired 
by the ennui of this dull earth. The memory of it 
will outlive the ages. 

In the early seventies we find our old friend Punch 
again upon the warpath, and the Venus of Milo dons 
the crinoletta! This, however, is only a repetition 
of his satire on the crinoline in his “ Essence of 
Parliament,” May, i860:— 

“ Lord Aberdeen’s son. Lord Haddock, or some 
such name, made a supremely ridiculous speech upon 
the impropriety of allowing money to any school of 
Art in which the undraped she-model was studied 
from. His father, who was called Athenian Aber¬ 
deen, and has so earnest a love for Greek Art that he 
actually favoured Russia because she has a Greek 
Church, ought to have cured his Haddock of such 
nonsense. Poor old Mr. Spooner, naturally, took the 
same really indelicate view of the case. Sir George 
Lewis expressed his lofty contempt for the Haddock, 
and Lord Palmerston kippered him in a speech full 
of good fun. It is impossible that the same country 
which contains Macdowell’s Eve, and Bailey’s Eve at 
the Fountain, can hold Haddock and Spooner. Mr. 
Punch must avow that he prefers keeping the diviner 
images, and somehow^ getting rid of the coarser ones. 
Pam wanted to know whether the latter would like 
to stick crinoline on the models, or would be content 
with African garb. The other Wiscount observed, 



THE CBIHOLETTA DISPIGURANS. 


An Old Parasite in a New Form. 
By Linley Sat/iboume Punch 


12 
















78 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


with more truth than politeness, ‘ Nude, indeed ! I 
knewed Addock was a Nass.’ ” 

An illustration is appended to the article of a 
figure resembling a fish in the act of adjusting a 
crinoline on the Venus de Medici. The crinoline 
rests upon the shoulders of the statue like a huge 
extinguisher. 

As previously hinted, the crinoletta was only a 
faint echo of the glories of its earlier prototype. It 
was a cylindrical contrivance, made up of steels or 
whalebones, either covered with a series of flounces, 
or worn underneath the dress like a big bustle. In 
fact, it began as a bustle, and gradually extended its 
proportions, wagging and swaying from side to side 
like the tail of a dragon, as the wearer moved. One 
well remembers—shall we, indeed, ever forget ?— 
these singular “contraptions ” displayed unblushingly 
in drapers’ shops, and even hanging in bundles at 
the doors. 

“ Hang out our banners on the outward walls ; 

The cry is still, ‘ They come.’” 


VII 


COLLARS 

AND 

CUFFS 


NtW YORK. N. Y, 


library 





“ Theodorus. Have they not also houses to set their ruffes in, to 
trim them and to trick them, as well as to starch them in? 

‘‘‘‘ Amphilogus. Yea, marry have they, for either the same starching 
houses do serve the turn, or else they have their other chambers 
and secret closets to the same use, wherein they tricke up these 
cartwheeles of the divels charet of pride, leading the direct way 
to the dungeon of hell.” 


Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses. 


VII 

COLLARS AND CUFFS 

It is to be understood that the terms “collar” and 
“ cuff” are here only intended to refer to those of 
linen, lace, or similar material, which are more or less 
separate from the rest of the costume. A “collar” is 
simply a neck-band, and may be of any material ; in 
the case of Gurth, “ born thrall of Cedric the Saxon,” 
it was of iron, and was the symbol of his servitude. 
The term “collar” is also applied to certain articles 
of jewellery— 

“ The collar of some order, which our King 
Hath newly founded, all for thee, my soul.” 

Tennyson, Last Tournament. 

Collars are of a comparatively modern origin, 
although some form of covering for the neck has been 
employed from a very early period. The Romans 
made use of chin-cloths for the protection of the 
neck and throat, which were termed “ focalia.” These 
were worn by public orators, who from professional 
considerations were fearful of taking cold, and who, 

i8i 


82 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


doubtless, contributed in no small degree to render 
the fashion of chin-cloths general. Some, says a 
writer on Roman antiquities (the Rev. Father Adam), 



HENRIETTA, MARQUISE D’ENTRAGUES. 
Engraved by Wierix, 


made use of a handkerchief (sudarium) for this pur¬ 
pose. This is probably the origin of the cravat, which 
is in many countries called neck-handkerchief. 







COLLARS AND CUFFS 


183 


The thorax, of otter’s skin, worn by Charlemagne 
during the colder months, has already been referred 
to in a previous chat. 

The wimple, also, which was a development of the 
Roman chin-cloth, and which was worn for such an 
extended period from the Norman Conquest onwards, 
is noticed under head-coverings. 

During the greater part of the period of York and 
Lancaster necks were worn bare, the “ camise ” ap¬ 
pearing at the V-shaped junction of the bodice, the 
neck being ornamented with jewellery. 

Shirt-bands were originally connected with neck- 
ruffs, and the ornament adjoined to the wristband of 
the shirt was known by the denomination of “ ruffle,” 
and was originally called the hand-ruff. In the in¬ 
ventory of apparel belonging to Henry VIIL occurs 
the item, “4 shirts with bands of silver and ruffles 
to the same, whereof one is perled with gold.” 

The ruff is said to have been first invented in the 
reign of Henry VI. by a Spanish lady of quality, to 
hide a wen which grew upon her neck. Its first 
appearance in England was about the time of the 
marriage of Queen Mary with Philip of Spain, these 
personages being represented upon the Great Seal of 
England in 1554 with small ruffs on the necks and 
wrists. The ruff appears in none of the portraits 
by Holbein, with the exception of one at Antwerp, 
which is dated 1543, the year before the painter’s 
death, and is, moreover, a doubtful work. In many 
portraits by this master, however, the lawn or cam¬ 
bric shirt appears at the neck with the edges ruffled, 
and often delicately embroidered. In the well-known 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


184 

portrait of the Duchess of Milan belonging to the 
Duke of Norfolk, and at present in the National 
Gallery, such a ruffle appears at the neck and also at 
the wrists, the edges emphasised by a narrow em¬ 
broidered border in black silk. This black embroider¬ 
ing was very generally employed during the reign of 
Henry VIII. It appears in a number of Holbein’s 
portraits, both at the wrists and at the neck, and is 
quite probably due to Holbein’s influence. There 
can be no reasonable doubt that this great painter 
influenced the dress of his time. The influence of 
his artistic personality would be considerable, and 
it is known that he designed dresses for the ladies 
of the court, several drawings for which are in the 
Basle Museum. In the inventory of the apparel of 
Henry VI 11 , appears : “ One payer of sieves, passed 
over the arms with gold and silver, quilted with black 
silk, and ruffled at the hand with strawberry leaves 
and flowers of gold, embroidered with black silk.” 

Starching at this period had not reached England; 
ruffs, therefore, must have been an expensive luxury, 
as the starched linen, imported from Flanders, could 
not be worn after being washed. 

In 1564, one Madame Dinghen, who, as her name 
suggests, hailed from Flanders, set up as a clear 
starcher in London, and appears to have made the 
trade of clear starching an extremely lucrative one. 
Her terms were four or five pounds for teaching “the 
most curious wives ” ^ to starch, and one pound for 
the art of seething starch. The “curious wives” sub¬ 
sequently made themselves ruffs of lawn ; whereupon 
* Stow. 



HENRY IV. OF FRANCE. 


F7 om a7i engraving by Goltziiis 


































86 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


arose the general scofifing by-word that they would 
shortly make their ruffs of spider’s web. 

A certain Richard Young, described as a justice, 
for a long time held the monopoly of the manufacture 
of starch in this country. From the Elizabethan 
State Papers we learn that in 1589 there was a prose¬ 
cution against an infringer of the patent, to wit, 
Charles dead, a gentleman of Kent, who declared 
to the Queen’s messengers that he would make 
starch in the face of any patent or warrant yet 
granted, unless set down by Act of Parliament. 

Setting-sticks, strutts, and poking-sticks were the 
tools used in the process of starching; the first made 
of wood or bone, and the latter of iron, which was 
heated in the fire. It was this heated tool which 
produced that beautiful regularity characteristic of 
this article of attire. 

“ They be made of yron or steele, and some of brass 
kept as bright as silver, yea, and some of silver it- 
selfe ; and it is well if in processe of time they grow 
not to be gold. The fashion whereafter they be made, 
I cannot resemble to anything so well as to a squirt, 
or a squibbe, which little children used, to squirt out 
water withall; and when they come to starching and 
setting of their ruffes, then must this instrument be 
heated in the fire, the better to stiffen the ruffe . . . 
and if you woulde know the name of this goodly 
toole, forsooth, the devill hath given it to name a 
putter, or else a putting sticke, as I heare say” 
(Stubbes, “ Anatomy of Abuses ”). 

Upon the introduction of these tools, together with 
starch, ruffs rapidly increased in their proportions. 


COLLARS AND CUFFS 


187 

They became,” says Stow, “ intolerably large,” and 
were known in London as the “ French fashion,” in 
Paris as the “ English monster.” The greatest 
gallant was he who possessed the longest rapier 
and the deepest ruff. It became necessary to apply 



THE INFANTA ISABELLA CLARA EUGENIA. 

Engraved by Jan Muller. 

one of the usual remedies against these and other 
extravagances of dress—a proclamation, or an Act of 
Parliament; in this instance a proclamation. Citi¬ 
zens were compelled to reduce their rapiers to a yard 



CHATS ON COSTUME 


188 

in length and their ruffs to “ a nail of a yard ” in 
depth. 

The unfinished engraving of the Infanta Isabella 
Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria,^ will serve to 
give a very good idea of the dimensions and general 
appearance of these articles of attire. 

Thus friend Philip Stubbes :—“ They have now 
newly found out a more monstrous kind of ruff, of 
twelve, yea, sixteen lengths apiece, set three or four 
times double, and it is of some, fitly called, ‘ three 
steps and an half to the gallows.’ ” 

The “ divells cartwheele ” attained its greatest 
circumference in 1582, when that love of change, 
inherent in the feminine breast, or possibly the grave 
and reverend appearance of the ruff, occasioned 
a revolt amongst the younger women, who were 
disinclined to hide the beauties of their swan-like 
necks and throats. The ruff was therefore opened 
in front and elevated behind. This was the gorget 
or whisk, which was used both plain and laced. 

A curious advertisement appears in the Meixiirms 
Piiblicus, of May 8, 1662 :— 

“ A cambric whisk, with Flanders lace, about a 
quarter of a yard broad, and a lace turning up about 
an inch broad, with a stock in the neck and strap 

* This lady, in 1601, registered a vow not to change her 
linen until the town of Ostend was taken. The siege lasted 
three years and three months, by which time her under¬ 
clothing had attained a colour which is perhaps easier to 
imagine than to describe. It provided a name for a stuff, 
“Couleur Isabella,” which was fashionable in France for 
over a century. 


COLLARS AND CUFFS 1 89 

hangers down before, was lost between New Palace 
and Whitehall. Reward, twenty shillings.” 

These whisks appear to have had a special pro¬ 
clivity for getting lost. Planche (“ Cyclopedia of 
Costume”) gives a similar advertisement:— 

“‘Lost, a tiffany whisk, with a great lace down and 
a little one up, large flowers, with a rail for the head 
and peak’ {The Newes, June 20, 1664).” 

On account of the weight of the “ whisk ”—it was 
formed of a wire framework covered with point lace 
—the “ piccadilly ” or stiffened collar was devised. 
Hone in his “ Everyday Book ” writes— 

“ The picadil was the round hem, or the piece set 
about the edge or skirt of a garment, whether at top 
or bottom; also a kind of stiff collar, made in 
fashion of a band, that went about the neck and 
round about the shoulders: hence the term ‘ wooden 
picadilloes ’ (meaning the pillory) in Hudibras. At 
the time that ruffs and picadils were much in fashion, 
there was a celebrated ordinary near St. James’s, 
called Piccadilly, because, as some say, it was the 
outmost or skirt house, situate at the end of the 
town ; but it more probably took its name from 
one Higgins, a tailor, who made a fortune by picadils, 
and built this with a few adjoining houses. The 
name has by a few been derived from a much 
frequented house for the sale of these articles ; but 
this probably took its rise from the circumstance of 
Higgins having built houses there, which, however, 
were not for selling ruffs.” 

Picardil is the diminutive of “ picca,” a pike or 
spear head, and was given to this article of attire from 


90 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the resemblance of its stiffened edges to the points 
of spears. Philips (“ World of Words,” 1693) defines 
pickardil as the “ hem about the skirt of a garment— 
the extremity or utmost end of everything.” Whether 
the collar gave the name to the district or the district 
to the collar is a matter of some uncertainty ; pro¬ 
bably, however, the former. The thoroughfare which 
we now know as Piccadilly certainly did not exist at 
the time the picadil was first worn, and the district 
was then “ the utmost end of everything ”—that is, 
beyond the confines of the town. 

Piccadilly as a place, or thoroughfare, is mentioned 
in “ The Rehearsal,” by George Villiers, second Duke 
of Buckingham, produced in the winter of 1671 :— 

“ His servants he into the country sent. 

And he himself to Piccadille went.” 

A pickadil is mentioned in the old comedy of 
“Northward Ho ” as part of a woman’s dress. 

On the visit of James I. to Cambridge in 1615, the 
Vice-Chancellor of the University thought fit to issue 
an order prohibiting “ the fearful enormity and excess 
of apparel seen in all degrees, as, namely, strange 
piccadilloes^ vast bands, huge cuffs, shoe-roses, tufts, 
locks and tops of hair, unbeseeming that modesty 
and carriage of students in so renowned a university.” 

The Church was still more fierce in its denunciation 
of these articles of attire. Hall, Bishop of Exeter, 
in a sermon, after having severely censured ruffs, 
farthingales, feathers, and paint, concludes with these 
words, which more than equal anything in Stubbes : 



SON OF THE PAINTER DIRCK DE VRIES. 

Engraved by Goltzius, 




192 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ Hear this, ye popinjays of our time: hear this, ye 
plaster-faced Jezabels : God will one day wash them 
with fire and with brimstone.” 

There appears to be considerable contradiction of 
terms, as applied to the different collars, both with 
the writers of the time and with subsequent writers. 
Barnabe Rich, in his “ Honesty of the Age,” says; 
“The body is still pampered up in the very dropsy of 
excess. . . . He that some forty years sithence should 
have asked after a pickadilly, I wonder who should 
have understood him or could have told what a 
pickadilly had been, either fish or flesh.” 

There was, however, the small ruff, such as is seen 
in the portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Philip 11 , 
of Spain (pp. 121-123). There was the large formal 
ruff which appears in the portrait of Lord Burleigh 
(p. 93), and the still larger ruff of the Infanta 
Isabella Clara Eugenia (p. 187). There was the less 
formal ruff which fell upon the shoulders, which 
is seen in many portraits by Franz Hals. There was 
the high standing pointed collar, such as appears in 
William Rogers’s print of Queen Elizabeth. There 
was a plain high-standing collar without lace, which 
went round the back of the head. There was the 
plain collar of the Cromwellians, which covered the 
shoulders, and there was also the rich lace collar of 
the latter part of the reign of Charles I. The plaits 
of the ruff were occasionally pinned, the rows being 
sometimes two and three deep. In the “ Antiquary,” 
a comedy by Shakerley Marmion, 1641, quoted by 
Strutt, a lover says to his mistress : “ Do you not 
remember what taskes you were wont to put upon 


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194 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


me when I bestowed you gowns and petticoats : and 
you in return gave me bracelets and shoe-ties ? 
How you fool’d me, and set me sometimes to pin 
pleats in your ruff two hours together ? ” 

In an old play called “ Lingua; or, the Combat of 
the Tongue and the Five Senses for Superiority,” 1607, 
one of the characters remarks :— 

‘‘ It is five hours ago since I set a dozen maids to 
attire a boy like a nice gentlewoman ; but there is 
such doing with their looking-glasses ; pinning, un¬ 
pinning, setting, unsetting, formings and conform- 
ings ; painting of blue veins, and rosy cheeks ; such 
a stir with combs, cascanets, purls, falls, squares, 
busks, bodices, scarfs, necklaces, carkonels, rabatoes, 
borders, tires, fans, palisadoes, puffs, ruffs, cuffs, muffs, 
pustles, fusles, partlets, frislets, bandlets, fillets, 
corslets, pendulets, amulets, annulets, bracelets, 
and so many lets that the poor lady of the toilet 
is scarce dressed .to the girdle. And now there is 
such calling for fardingales, kirtles, busk-points, 
shoe-ties and the like, that seven pedlars’ shops, 
nay, all Stourbridge fair, will scarcely furnish. A 
ship is sooner rigged by far than a nice gentle¬ 
woman made ready.” 

Towards the latter part of the reign of Charles I. 
both ruff and whisk give place to the falling band, 
which was worn both plain and laced. It had, 
indeed, appeared earlier, even in the latter years 
of Elizabeth, but was not in general use until the 
time of Charles. The trouble occasioned by the ruff 
and whisk appears to have been a factor of their 
downfall. A character in the “ Malecontent,” 1604, 


COLLARS AND CUFFS 195 

exclaims: “ There is such a deal of pinning these 
ruffles when a fine cleane fall is worth all.” 

The cravat, or neckcloth, which succeeded the ruff 
and band, did not come into general use until the 
latter part of the reign of the Merry Monarch ; 
indeed, some similar form of neck covering became 
a necessity, on account of the monstrous size of the 
periwigs. It formed a large bow at the chin, with 
the ends richly laced. There was a variety of the 
neckcloth which was twisted like a corkscrew, the 
ends being drawn through a ring. This was called 
a “ Steinkirk,” from the circumstance of the French 
officers at the battle of that name in 1692, who could 
not find time to arrange their cravats, and adopted 
the readier means of twisting them in a knot. The 
laced ends of the cravat afterwards increased in size, 
and were drawn through the button-hole of the 
waistcoat. 

“ One of the knots of his tye hanging down his 
left shoulder, and his fringed cravat nicely twisted 
down his breast, and thrust through his gold button¬ 
hole, which looked exactly like my little Barbet’s 
head in his gold collar ” (David Garrick, “ Bon Ton ; 
or. High Life Below Stairs,” 1775). 

From a singular little pocket-manual upon the art 
of tying the cravat, by H. Le Blanc, Esq., published 
in 1828, it would appear that there are no less than 
two-and-thirty different styles of tying the cravat. 
These are demonstrated in sixteen lessons, with 
illustrations, together with portrait of the author, 
figured, as a matter of course, in an irreproachable 
cravat. 


96 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ When a man of rank makes his entree into a 
circle distinguished for taste and elegance, and the 
usual compliments have passed on both sides, he 
will discover that his coat will attract only a slight 
degree of attention, but that the most critical and 
scrutinising examination will be made on the set 
of his Cravat. Should this unfortunately not be 
correctly and elegantly put on—no further notice 
will be taken of him ; whether his coat be of the 
reigning fashion or not will be unnoticed by the 
assembly—all eyes will be occupied in examining 
the folds of the fatal Cravat. 

“ His reception will in the future be cold, and no 
one will move on his entrance; but if his Cravat is 
savaniment and elegantly formed—although his coat 
may not be of the last cut —every one will rise to 
receive him with the most distinguished marks of 
respect, will cheerfully resign their seats to him, and 
the delighted eyes of all will be fixed on that part of 
his person which separates the shoulders from the 
chin—let him speak down-right nonsense he will be 
applauded to the skies; it will be said—‘This man 
has critically and deeply studied the thirty-two 
lessons on the Art of Tying the Cravat’ But 
again reverse the picture—it will be found that 
the unfortunate individual who is not aware of 
the existence of this justly celebrated work—how¬ 
ever well informed he may be on other subjects— 
will be considered as an ignorant pretender, and will 
be compelled to suffer the impertinence of the fop, 
who will treat him with disdain, merely because his 
Cravat is not correctly disposed—he will moreover be 


COLLARS AND CUFFS 


97 


obliged to hear in silence, and to approve (under pain 
of being considered unacquainted with the common 
rules of politeness) all the remarks which he will 
thus subject himself to—occasionally relieved by 
hearing a whisper of, ‘ He cannot even put on a 
Cravat properly.’” 

The reader will not expect, possibly will experience 
little desire, to be taken through the whole of the two- 
and-thirty lessons in the art of tying the cravat; a 
single illustration will probably suffice. It shall be, 
however, “ the sovereign of cravat ties, the ‘ Noeud 
Gordien,’ the origin of which is lost in the obscurity 
of antiquity.” 

The discovery of the name of the brilliant genius 
to whom the honour of this invention is due has, 
apparently, defied the most laborious researches on 
the part of the author. He can only tell us (what 
he believes is generally known) that Alexander the 
Great, although he could conquer a whole world, and, 
like a youthful character in the works of the immortal 
Dickens, szg'/i for more (soup, however, in the case of 
the juvenile), was still unable to comprehend the 
theory of its construction, and adopted the shorter 
and easier method of cutting it with his sword. 

“ Attention ! ” 

Cravats when sent from the laundress should 
undergo a careful examination as to the washing, 
ironing, and folding, as the set of the cravat and 
neatness of the tie entirely depends upon this. 
Whether it be plain or coloured is apparently of 
little moment, and does not in the least affect its 
formation, but a stout one is recommended as 


98 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


offering more facilities to the daring fingers of the 
tyro who would accomplish this chef-d'oeuvre. 

It now becomes necessary to meditate deeply and 
seriously upon the five following directions:— 

1. Having carefully chosen the cravat, it must be 
placed on the neck, the ends left hanging (first time). 

2. Take point K, pass it on the inside of point Z, 
and raise it (second time). 

3. Lower point K on the tie, now half formed O 
(third time). 

4. Then, without leaving point K, bend it inside 
and draw it between the point Z, which you repass 
to the left Y; in the tie now formed, Y O, thus 
accomplishing the formation of the knot. 

5. “ And last.” Having accomplished the knot, 
flattened it with thumb and fore-finger, or with the 
iron (a small iron is recommended, with a handle, 
made expressly for the purpose, and moderately 
warm), you lower the points K Z, cross them, place 
a pin at the point of junction H, at once solving the 
problem which defied the greatest of the world’s 
conquerors. 

^^The slightest error in the first fold of this tie will 
render all succeeding efforts, with the same handker¬ 
chief, entirely useless—we have said itr ^ 

Although, as previously intimated, it is not 
proposed to wander through the labyrinth of the 
whole of the two-and-thirty lessons, two others may 
with advantage be referred to. Our author, though 
somewhat facetious, is distinctly entertaining. 

" “ What I have said, I have said ” (the Right Hon. Joseph 
Chamberlain). 






















200 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ The Cravat Sentimentale.” 

This, as its name implies, should only be adopted 
by those whose physiognomy inspires the tender 
passion. It may be worn from the age of “seven¬ 
teen to twenty-seven ; after that age it cannot, with 
propriety, be patronised even by the most agreeable.” 

“ You, then, whom Nature has not gifted with eyes 
of fire—with complexions rivalling the rose and lily ; 
you, to whom she has denied pearly teeth and 
coral lips—a gift which, in our opinion, would be 
somewhat inconvenient ; you, in fact, whose faces 
do not possess that sympathetic charm which, in a 
moment—at a glance—spreads confusion o’er the 
senses,” &c., pause before adopting the cravat senti¬ 
mentale—avoid it, in fact; leave it to more highly 
favoured mortals. 

“ The Cravat a la Byron.” 

^This must be worn by none but those who would 
mount the topmost slopes of Parnassus, and drink 
deeply of the Castalian spring.^ Our author does 
not, indeed, say so, but the fact is sufficiently evident. 

It is universally allowed that the least constraint 
on the body has a corresponding effect on the mind ; 
a tight cravat, therefore, will “ cramp the imagination 
and, as it were, suffocate the thoughts.” This is 
the reason why Lord Byron submitted to the incon- 

' The Castalian spring is at the foot of the mountain, but it 
should have been at the top, where the tired and thirsty 
traveller would be most likely to need it. Besides, it is not 
to be expected that we could reverse the order of the para¬ 
graph —^‘we have said it” 


COLLARS AND CUFFS 


201 


veniences of a cravat, only “ when accommodating 
himself to the bienseances of society,” and explains 
the fact that “ whenever he is painted in the ardour 
of composition his neck is always free from the 
trammels of the neckcloth.” 

Black silk cravats, at the time of our author’s 
writing (1828), were generally worn, and coloured 
silk handkerchiefs occasionally patronised. It appears 
that Napoleon invariably wore a black silk cravat, 
but at Waterloo it was observed that, contrary to his 
usual custom, he wore a white neckerchief with a 
flowing bow, although the day previous he appeared 
in his black cravat. The superstitiously inclined will 
note this fact ; it is, however, extremely unlikely that 
the change influenced in the slightest degree the 
result of the battle. 

In the late thirties and early forties Dame Fashion 
turned her attention in the direction of embroidered 
muslin. Delicate floral patterns, often displaying 
considerable taste in design and a high degree of 
technical skill, were wrought upon collarettes, cuffs, 
chemisettes, &c.; it was chiefly produced in the 
north of Ireland, and an extensive trade arose, finding 
employment for large numbers of women and girls 
in the counties of Donegal, Tyrone, and Down. 
The delicacy of the material and the absence of 
colour, lent itself insensibly to a naturalistic treatment. 

As is usual with the caprices of fashion, the art 
only lasted for a comparatively brief period. It still 
survives, however, in the form of embroidered hand¬ 
kerchiefs, for which there is even now a demand. 



VIII 


HATS, 

CAPS, 

AND 

BONNETS 


“‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving his right paw round, 
lives a Hatter; and in direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives 

March Hare. Visit either you like; they’re both mad.’” 

Alice's Adventia'es in Wonderland, 



FOOLS IN A MORRIS DANCE. 
Bodleian A/S. {free rendering). 


VIII 

HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 

Mad as a hatter? How comes an honest craft to 
be thus maligned ? Hatters were never mad—that 
is, not more so than the rest of us—until they 
adopted the pot of the chimney as a model.^ 

Nature has provided in the hair a natural covering 
for the head. Hats are not really a necessity. 

Dr. Jaeger (“ Health Culture”) discusses the pro¬ 
bable reasons for the greater prevalence of baldness 
among men than among women. While rejecting the 
theory that the competition of the beard is precarious 
to the hair of the head, abstracting from the latter its 
due nourishment, and pointing out that the long 
beards and luxuriant heads of hair of our ancestors 
refute this theory—that the more strenuous head- 
work which falls to the share of the male sex is 

' * It would appear to be a corruption of “ mad as an 
after (adder). The word “ adder ” is alter in Saxon, natter in 
German. Its origin, however, is apparently somewhat obscure. 

205 







206 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


responsible for the loss of hair ; that the unnatural 
custom of cutting men’s hair, first adopted when 
nature was abandoned in favour of the fashions of 
civilisation, is to blame for it; that drink, dissolute 
habits, or heredity is the cause—he finds that a far 
more probable cause is the difference between the 
male and female head-covering, “ which latter is, as 
a rule, lighter, more airy, and more porous than the 
usually almost waterproof and exceedingly absurd 
male head-coverings, such as the stiff felt hats, and 
high hats, with the strip of leather which encircles the 
forehead and effectually retains the perspiration.” 

“ The best head-covering would certainly be—none 
at all. But usage, and in many cases weather con¬ 
ditions, render this impracticable.” . . . “ Not only 
are the hard hats, now in such general use, injurious 
on account of the pores of the material being closed, 
impeding the passage of the exhalation from the 
head; but the shellac used in stiffening them has an 
injurious effect, from which the cherry gum used in 
the case of the soft hats is comparatively free.” Pie 
adds: “ Of course, soft hats cannot be worn in all 
cases—on ceremonial occasions the hard hat may 
be chosen; but ordinarily the hygienically superior 
soft hat should be worn.” Why, however, on occa¬ 
sions of ceremony? Was ceremonial non-existent 
before the advent of the nineteenth century? It 
would rather appear that if the nineteenth century is 
conspicuous for anything it is for its absence of cere¬ 
monial. There is absolutely no reason why a hat of 
a particular density, or even of a particular shape, 
should be necessary to occasions of high ceremonial. 



MRS. ANNE WARREN. 


Aftei Ronmey 





2 o8 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Moreover, in this connection it may be very perti¬ 
nently asked, Is artistic invention so utterly dead 
that it cannot devise a head-gear which shall fit in 
with its surroundings on such occasions as call for 
more dignity and impressiveness in the matter of 
costume ? It is, however, an incontrovertible fact, 
as a well-known present-day writer has pointed out, 
that “ revolutions are practicable in everything—in 
manners, morals, government, even religion—sooner 
than in clothes ;* and that sumptuary laws are the 
only laws that have always failed of being obeyed.” 
It is universally admitted that modern dress is 
intolerably ugly ; that it fails, not only upon its 
artistic side, but also upon the score of utility ; yet 
every suggestion for its improvement is always met 
by a flat non possumus. 

Some form of hood was, doubtless, the earliest 
covering for the head, either as a separately made-up 
article, or, as in the case of the Greeks and Romans, 
formed by the drawing of the pallium or toga over the 
head to serve as protection during inclement weather. 
The Romans had a hooded cloak (cucullus) which 
was worn by the commoner people, and w'hich, in 
some form or another, has been in use during all 
subsequent periods. It is, in fact, generally worn at 
the present day in most parts of the Continent of 
Europe, and forms an extremely reasonable and 
convenient article of attire. 

The hood formed the principal covering for the 
head of both sexes during the twelfth, thirteenth, and 
part of the fourteenth centuries. The hood (chaperon) 
was a separate article of dress as distinct from the 


BATSy CAPS, AND BONNETS 20 g 

cowl (capuchon), which was attached to and formed 
part of the cloak or other article of dress, although 
the two terms are indiscriminately used by the earlier 
writers. 

The hood assumed, in the first instance, more or 
less the form of the Phrygian cap. The tippet, or 
tail, was afterwards developed to a considerable 
length, in the thirteenth century reaching almost 
to the ground. Dante is usually represented in such 
a hood, with long tippet, and in the portrait of 
Cimabue by Simon Memmi, c. 1300, the painter 
appears wearing a hood with a tippet reaching a 
little below the middle. 

The cap or hood worn by “ fools ” was simply the 
hood of the fashion of the particular period, with the 
addition of the cock’s comb, the pair of ass’s ears 
and the bells, occasionally worn all together, and 
often parti-coloured. 

In the wardrobe accounts of Henry VIII. occurs— 
“ Item, for making a doublet of worsted, lined with 
canvass and cotton, for William Som’ar, our fool; 
item, for making of a coat and cap of green cloth 
fringed with red crule and lined with frize for our 
said fool.” 

The men’s turbaned head-dress of the reign of 
Richard II. and later is sufficiently remarkable to 
warrant a description. It was a long cloth, wound 
round and round the head—the edges cut, clipped and 
jagged in various ways—one end of which either stood 
up on the top of the head or was allowed to fall over 
the side of the turban, the other end hanging down 
in front of the body, longer or shorter according to 

14 


210 


CHATS ON COSTUME 



HUNTING HAT. 

Orcagna^ Campo Santa., Pisa. 


the fancy or caprice of 
the wearer, the whole 
presenting a very fan¬ 
tastic appearance, occa¬ 
sionally, however, not 
ungraceful. 

The beginning of this 
head-dress was simply a 
different way of wearing 
the hood, as Mr. Planche 
has shown by means of 
two diagrams in his “ En- 
cylopedia of Costume.” 
It occurred to some in¬ 
genious soul to insert his 



head in the oval opening in the hood made for 
the face, to gather up in the form of a fan the 
portion wh?ch covered 
the shoulders, and to 
bind it in position by 
winding the long tippet 
round the head and 
tucking in the end of 
it. Later, no doubt, 
the head - dress was 
formally made up by 
the hatter or tailor, as 
the case may be, and 
assumed a more com¬ 
plex character. 

The Greeks, when hunting hat. 

travelling, protected 


Orcagna^ Caynpo Santa., Pisa. 



HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 21 I 

their heads from the heat or the wet by means of a 
flat broad-brimmed hat, tied underneath the chin, and 
allowed to hang on the back when not required on the 
head. This fashion or device was continued during 
the Middle Ages, and the hat was often worn over the 
hood (although this would seem a superfluity), the 
strings were secured at the breast by means of a 
moveable ring, which, by being moved up under¬ 
neath the chin, kept the hat in its place on the 
head. Such a hat was figured on the wall of the 
old Palace at Westminster, and has been published 
in the “Vetusta Monumenta” of the Society of 
Antiquaries. 

During the greater part of the Norman and Plan- 
tagenet period the wimple or neck-cloth was 
common. It was a development of the Anglo-Saxon 
veil or head-cloth (couvre-chef), and an echo of the 
mailed coif of the period. It is thus referred to by 
John de Meun : “ Par Dieu ! I have often thought 
in my heart, when I have seen a lady so closely 
tied up, that her neck-cloth was nailed to her 
chin, or that she had the pins hooked into her 
flesh.” 

Such a wimple is figured from Orcagna (Campo 
Santo, Pisa) on the opposite page. 

The golden net-caul (crestine, creton, crespine, cres- 
pinette) appeared during the reigns of Henry III. 
and Edward I., worn either with or without the 
wimple and veil, and lasted, in its varying forms, 
well into the sixteenth century. It either enclosed 
the hair as within a bag or pouch, or assumed the 
form of a netted cap, as in the so-called “Beatrice 


212 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


d’Este,” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in the Brera 
at Milan ; or the net-bag above alluded to was 



FIGURE WITH LONG NET-CAUL. 

“ Thenne was I war of 
clothed, 


elongated so as to form 
a long pigtail, tied at 
intervals, often extend¬ 
ing almost to the feet, 
as in the marriage scene 
in the fresco by Pin- 
turicchio in the Piccolo- 
mini Library at Siena. 
It was often richly orna¬ 
mented with jewels— 

“ Their heads were dight 
well withal, 

Everich had on a jolyf 
coronal 

With sixty gems and 
mo.” 

This, however, refers 
to the chaplet or gar¬ 
land commonly worn by 
the ladies of the four¬ 
teenth century, 
a wommon wonderliche 


Purfylet with pelure the ricchest uppon eorthe, 
I-crouned with a coroune, the King hath no 
bettre ; 

Alle hir fyve fyngres weore frettet with rynges. 
Of the preciousest perre, that prince wered evere ; 













HATS, CAPS, AND P ON NETS 


213 


In Red Scarlet her Rod i-rybaunt with gold ; 

Ther nis no Qweene qweyntore, that quik is alyve.” 

Piers Plowman, 
Description of Meed (Bribery). 

The hair was now wound up 
on either side of the head, the 
coils either worn without any 
covering or enclosed within a 

caul ; the veil or curtain being 
extended at the sides. This 

marked the commencement of 

From Fra Angelico, those horned head-dresses which 

Florence. t , 1 1 1 1 

were speedily developed to such 

an extravagant degree, and so excited the wrath 

of the satirists of the time. 

John de Meun, who com¬ 
pleted “ The Romaunt of 
the Rose,” observes that 
these horns appear to be 
designed to wound the men, 
and adds : “ I know not 

whether they call gibbets or 
corbels that which sustains 
their horns, which they con¬ 
sider so fine, but I venture to 
say that St. Elizabeth is not 
in Paradise for having car¬ 
ried such baubles.” From Fra Angelico, Florence. 

In a volume entitled “ Joug- 
leurs et Trouveres,” by M. Jubinal, is a satire on 
horned head - dresses, under the title of “ Des 





214 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Cornetes,” from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Royale at 
Paris, of the beginning of the fourteenth century. In 
this poem it appears that the Bishop of Paris had 
preached a sermon directed against extravagance in 
women’s dress, their horns and the bareness of their 
necks. “If we do not get out of the way of the 
women we shall be killed ; for they carry horns with 
which to kill men.” 

This same sermon is quaintly referred to by the 
Knight of la Tour-Landry in his advice to his 
daughters : “ He said that the women that were so 
horned were lyche to be horned snails and hertis and 
unicornes.” “ I doute that the develle sitte not 
betwene her homes, and that he make hem bowe 
doun the hede for ferde of the holy water.” Also 
the good knight told how there was “ onis a gentille 
woman that come to a fest so straungely atyred and 
queintly arraied to haue the lokes of the pepille, that 
all that sawe her come ranne towardes her to wonder 
lik as on a wilde beaste. for she was atyred with highe 
longe pynnes lyke a jebet, and so she was scorned 
of alle the company, and saide she bare a galous on 
her hede.” ^ 

" Tie above story was told to the knight by a lady of his 
acquaintance who was an eye-witness of the event. We give 
here Caxton’s version :—“ For her clothyng and araye was 
different and no thyng lyke to theyr, and therefore she had 
wel her part beholdyng and lokyng, Thenne said the good 
ladyes to her, ‘ My frende, telle ye us, yf it please yow, how ye 
name that aray that ye have on your heed ?’ She answerde 
and saide, ‘ The galhows aray.’ ' God bless us,’ said the 
good lady, ‘the name of hit is not faire.’ ... ‘As ferre as I 
me remembre of it,’ continued the knight’s informant, ‘hit 


NATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 215 

The preaching in the Middle Ages appears to 
have been remarkably effective. Monstrelet, in his 
Chronicles, relates a story of one Thomas Conecte, 
a preaching friar, who attacked the steeple head¬ 
dresses with great zeal and resolution. His eloquence 
was such that the women flung down their head¬ 
dresses in the middle of his sermon and made a bon¬ 
fire of them within sight of the pulpit. He frequently 
had an audience of 20,000 people, the men ranging 
themselves on one side of the pulpit and the 
women on the other, the latter appearing “ like a 
forest of cedars with their heads reaching to the 
clouds.” 

The impression he created was, however, not a 
lasting one; as soon as his back was turned the horns 
again began to grow : “ The women that, like snails 
in a fright, had drawn in their horns, shot them out 
again as soon as the danger was over.” 

The horn-shaped head-dress appears in no pictorial 
documents or monuments older than the reign of 
Henry IV. The heart-shaped head-dress began with 
a flat pad on the top of the head, with the sides 
slightly turned up, enclosed in a silken net, which was 
often jewelled, the hair being worn in coils above the 
ears, at the back, or hanging down, as the case may 
be. The sides were then turned up sharply in the 
shape of a V, and the head-dress heightened. This 
was developed in a variety of ways. 

The steeple head-dress varied in its height—from 

was highe culewed with longe pynnes of sylver uppon her hede, 
after the makynge and maner of a gybet or galhows, right 
straunge and merveylous to se.’ ” 


2I6 


CHATS ON COSTUME 



a matter of i 8 inches or less, 
to 3 feet—in its ornamentation 
and colour ; it was either plain, 
or decorated with simple bands 
or ribbons wound crosswise ; it 
varied, however, chiefly in the 
veiling. There was a veil 
thrown over the whole, and 
falling over the sides of the 
face, or, the veil was attached 
to the summit of the steeple 
and allowed either to hang 
loose, or was looped at some 
point at the back. There was 
also a veil which was attached 
to the lower border of the 
steeple at its point of contact 
with the head, and which completely shrouded the 
head, front and back ; there was also 
the remarkable arrangement of the veil, 
which was built up on a system of 
wires, and which was called the 
“ hennin.” 

A variation of the “ hennin ” was the 
“ butterfly,” in which the steeple which 
formed the base of the head-dress was 
reduced to a comparatively short “ caul,” 
and the veil extended itself on either 
side like the wings of an insect; this, 
in a slightly different form, continued 
to the Tudor period. 

, 1 , 1 11 j) HORNED HEAD- 

1 here was also the “ balloon or dress 


HEART-SHAPED HEAD¬ 
DRESS. 






//ATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 21J 

turban. This, like the heart-shaped head-dress, com¬ 
menced with a flat pad, like a cake, which in its 
earlier stage was invariably richly ornamented, ofler- 
ing no particular variety in its form ; when it became 
round, it developed a second roll around the forehead, 
with bands at intervals, which formed its constructive 
elements. 

Notwithstanding the strictures passed upon these 
head-dresses by contemporary moralists or purists 
and by subsequent writers, who simply echo their 
sentiments without bringing any independent judg¬ 
ment to bear upon the matter, and who often possess 
no artistic knowledge or even perception, these head¬ 
dresses are often extremely piquant and quaint; 
extravagance there was, doubtless, and even ugliness ; 
but even the high steeple was not out of proportion, 
as it must be remembered that the gowns and trains 
were correspondingly long, thus balancing the high 
tapering steeple. As a matter of fact, the whole dress 
was in keeping, the high tapering head-dress, the 
long tapering toes, the close-fitting sleeves (which, 
however, were occasionally provided with an outer 
hanging sleeve, also long), forming an ensemble which 
would compare favourably with the dress of any 
period. 

The Tudor period brought about a complete 
change in the head-dresses of both men and women ; 
as a matter of fact, dress generally of this period 
assumed a graver character. Horns, hearts, steeples, 
and butterflies suddenly disappeared, and the head¬ 
dress of the ladies of the Court assumed that 
diamond-shaped form with which we are familiar 


2i8 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


in the portraits by Holbein, who doubtless materially 
influenced the costume of this period. It consisted 
of a cap and coverchief, and sometimes a hood, the 
coverchief being generally allowed to fall down on 
the right side. The cap was invariably richly 
jewelled and embroidered. Good examples may be 
seen in the drawing of the Lady Vaux at Windsor 
and the portrait of Jane Seymour at Vienna. It was 
a dignified, restrained, and exceedingly beautiful 
head-dress ; if any confirmation of this statement 
were needed, it is to be found in the remarks of the 
various lay writers on costume, who invariably 
describe it as harsh and ugly. 

An excellent example of the beautiful flat cap or 
bonnet worn generally during the Tudor period is to 
be seen in the portrait of William, Duke of Juliers 
and Cleves, by Aldegrever (p. 6). The cap, in this 
instance, is tilted to one side of the head, instead of 
being worn flat on the top ; it is jewelled at intervals 
along the brim, and plumed. The material is most cer¬ 
tainly velvet, which is that most generally used by the 
nobility, but, in 1571, with the view of encouraging 
English manufactures, it was by Parliament enacted 
that all persons above the age of six years, except 
only the nobility and persons of degree, should on 
Sabbaths and holydays wear caps of wool, of English 
manufacture. Twenty-six years afterwards this law 
was repealed. 

This flat cap appears in a number of portraits by 
Holbein, worn both tilted on one side and flat on the 
top of the head. A cap of this kind might very well 
be worn by men at the present day, minus, of course, 



FRANCIS BACON. 
Engraved by IV. Marshall, 









































220 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the plume and jewels, without appearing startlingly 
obtrusive. It could be made in any cloth, and would 
be a great improvement on the caps which are at 
present in use. The extreme refinement, however, 
of the Tudor cap is due to the material, to the quality 
of the workmanship, and, in the instance of the 
portrait above-mentioned, to the rich jewels which 
adorn it. 

Similar shaped headgear has, as a matter of fact, 
been recently adopted by girls, but they are for the 
most part vulgar productions, indifferently made, and 
sold cheaply, and afford abundant evidence of the 
fact that the milliner possessed no artistic know¬ 
ledge, or even taste, and had not taken the trouble, 
possibly had not considered it advisable, to refer 
to fine examples. 

The simple flat cap above mentioned was 
developed in various ways during the Tudor period, 
both for men and for women ; the brim was either 
divided in two or more parts, or it was doubled, 
slashed, and puffed in various ways, the puffing being 
of a different material and colour to the rest of the 
hat. For women and for the military, large plumes of 
ostrich feathers were added. Many examples of the 
latter may be seen in Hans Burgkmair’s “Triumphs 
of Maximilian.” In the equestrian portrait of 
Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham (p. 23), we 
get the pot-hat proper (Elizabethan version), differing 
very little as to shape from that at present in use, but 
plumed, with three ostrich feathers and three other 
pointed ones. The horse is similarly plumed. The 
hat can scarcely be said to be a thing of beauty, even 



THOMAS KILLE(}REW. 
Engraved by William Faithorne. 





















222 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


with the addition of its ostrich plume, and adds 
nothing to the decorative beauty of the plate, but 
rather detracts from it. 

The centenary of the modern pot-hat was cele¬ 
brated in Paris only last year, and, amid much 
jubilation, a number of caustic remarks were made 
by Madame Sarah Bernhardt and others on the 
subject of “ man’s cylindrical attire.” 

On looking at the various developments during 
the century, as , illustrated in ' a well-known 
weekly magazine, the contour of the pot-hat has 
changed perhaps less than one might suppose. 
It has not been a continuous development, but, 
rather, an oscillation backwards and forwards. In 
point of fact, a continuous development was impos¬ 
sible without taking leave of the pot-hat altogether ; 
one must either retrace one’s steps or start upon a 
new track, as will be seen by a reference to the 
accompanying diagrams, which must be considered, 
be it understood, merely as diagrams, and not in any 
sense as representing fhe limits of the artist’s power 
of realism. 

The scale of decorative development is, like the 
scale of tones in music, absolute. It is the principle 
upon which Nature herself works, and this principle 
may be as well illustrated by means of the pot-hat as 
by anything else, as the principle holds good, and 
may be applied to any “ demned thing,” as Mr. 
Mantalini would say. 

We have, then, the two primal, elemental forms to 
work with, the straight line and the curved. Fig. i 
represents the pot-hat in what may be called its 


HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 


223 


primordial state, in which state it stands in the same 
relation to headgear generally as did Millbank Prison 
to architecture; it would not be possible to produce 
less variety except by reducing its height and mak¬ 
ing its shape an exact parallelogram. In the next 
figure, by substituting the curved line for the straight 
lines of the sides and brim, we get a hint of those 
delicate and subtle curves for which the pot-hat is 
famous. In Fig. 4—not to weary the gentle reader 
with a long dissertation, he will at once perceive the 




THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHIMNEY-POT HAT. 

principle—the degree of curvature is carried as far as 
is consonant with dignity or propriety ; to carry it 
further would be to border upon buffoonery ; such 
vagaries could not by any possibility be entertained 
in a work of such gravity and seriousness as the 
present. The same may be said of development in 
the direction of height. It only remains to develop 
the hat by means of reducing the width of its crown 
at the top, since the dimension AA is absolute, as the 
article must conform it.self to the human cranium, 
























224 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


which for present purposes is a fixed quantity. It is 
at this point that we take an affectionate and regret¬ 
ful leave of the pot-hat proper. Fig. 5 represents 
the high-crowned hat of the reign of James I., and 
which, in fact, was worn during the greater part of 
the Stuart period. “ I send you,” writes the King 
(James I.) to his son, in 1623, “ for youre wearing, the 
three bretheren that ye knowe full well, but newlie 
sette, and the mirroure of Fraunce, the fellow of the 
Portugall dyamont, quiche I wolde wishe you to 
weare alone in your hatte, with a little blakke 
feather” ; and to Buckingham he says, “ As to thee, 
my sweete gossippe, I send thee a faire table 
dyamont, quiche I wolde once have givin thee 
before if thou wolde have taken it, and I have hung 
a faire pearle to it for wearing on thy hatte orquhaire 
thou plaisis, and if my Babie will spaire thee the two 
long dyamonts in forme of an anker, with the pen¬ 
dant dyamont, it were fit for an admiral to weare. 

. . . If my Babie will not spaire the anker from his 
mistresse, he may well lend thee his rounde broocke 
to weare, and yett he shall have jewells to weare in 
his hatte for three great dayes.” 

It was customary to wear jev/els either in front of 
the hat or upon the brim when turned up. Often 
a single pearl was depended over the edge of the 
brim. Such a pearl may be seen in William Rogers’s 
portrait of Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex 
(Elizabeth’s Essex), the hat, in this instance, having 
a broad brim. 

To return to our diagrams. No. 6, a further 
narrowing of the top of the crown, represents the 



^ BASIS ^ 
.(vtR'rvw 
COM SIAN; 
. TIA .jj 




mm 


1 A. 


iv r-V’tiS ■ COM -X 


ROBERT DEVEREUX, SECOND EARL OF ESSEX. 

Engraved by William Rogers^ 


15 







































226 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


quaint extinguisher hats which have been worn at 
various periods, and which are still worn by the 
Welsh peasantry. 

“ There came up a Lass from a country town, 
intending to live in the City, 

In a steeple-crown Hat, and a Paragon Gown, 
who thought herself wondrous pretty ; 

Her Petticoat serge, her Stockings were green, 
her Smock cut out of a sheet, Sir ; 

And under it all, was seldom yet seen so fair 
a young maid for the street. Sir! ” 

Roxburgh Ballads^ 1685. 

By lowering the crown and widening the brim we 
arrive at the sombrero. No. 7. 

The slouch hat turned up on one side, of the 
Stuart period, was the precursor, historically and 
decoratively, of the three-cornered hat of the period 
of the House of Orange. It was afterwards turned 
up on two sides, and in this stage decorated with 
feathers, and finally turned up at the back, thus 
forming the three-cornered hat, which lasted for a 
century, the feathers disappearing, and the edges 
trimmed with lace. Such turning up of the brim 
was called “cocking’' the hat. 

The different modes of cocking the hat were almost 
innumerable—in fact, according to the fancy of the 
wearer ; there was the “ Monmouth cock,” after the 
unfortunate Duke of that name ; the “ Ramillie cock,” 
which came in at the Battle of Ramillies in 1706; 
the military cock and the mercantile cock ; and upon 


HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 22J 

the accession of George III. (1760) “a hat worn 
upon an average six inches and three-fifths broad in 
the brim, and cocked between Quaker and Keven- 
huller.” 

“ When Anna ruled, and Kevenhuller fought. 
The hat its title from the Hero caught.” 

Art of Dressing the Hair, 1770. 

From a chapter on hats in the London Chronicle 
for 1762 we learn that—“ Some wear their hats with 
the corner that should come over their foreheads high 
in the air; these are the Gawkies. Others do not 
above half cover their heads, which is, indeed, owing 
to the shallowness of their crowns ; but, between 
beaver and eyebrows, expose a blank forehead, which 
looks like a sandy road in a surveyor’s plan. ... A 
gold button and loop to a plain hat distinguishes a 
person to be a little lunatic; a gold band round it 
shows the owner to be very dangerously infected ; 
and if a tassel is added, the patient is incurable. A 
man with a hat larger than common represents the 
fable of the mountain in labour, and the hats edged 
round with a gold binding belong to brothers of the 
turf.” 

With the advent of the French Revolution in 1789 
the three-cornered cocked hat disappears, and in 1803 
we find a noticeable change in costume. “ The 
French anticipated this invasion by sending over the 
most unsightly fashions that have ever appeared. 
The most distinguishing features were the coverings 
of the head, which consisted, in the one sex of an 


I 



LETITIA KONAPARTE, MOTHER OF NAPOLEON. 




ANNE DAY. 


Engraved by Ja 7 }ies Macardell. 


230 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


enormous military cap, and in the other of a bonnet, 
probably of straw, of a very ungraceful form. They 
are represented in the accompanying cut, taken from 
a caricature entitled ‘ Two of the Wigginses—Tops 
and Bottoms of 1803,’ published on the 2nd of July 
in that year ” (Thomas Wright, “ Works of Gillray”) 
In 1765 a large hood appeared called calash, made 
of a framework of whalebone hoops, resembling the 

hood of a carriage 
icalhhe), and pulled over 
the head by means of a 
string. It is said to 
have been introduced into 
England by the Duchess 
of Bedford. 

What shall we say to 
the page of Parisian 
head-dresses from Bell's 
Fashionable Magazine for 
April, 1812, three years 
before the Battle of 
Waterloo ? 

Goldsmith, in a short 
essay “ on the ladies’ passion for levelling all distinc¬ 
tion of dress,” says : “ Foreigners observe that there 
are no ladies in the world more beautiful or more ill- 
dressed than those of England. Our countrywomen 
have been compared to those pictures where the face 
is the work of a Raphael, but the draperies thrown 
out by some empty pretender, destitute of taste, and 
entirely unacquainted with design.” 

He adds, by way of compensation to the ladies, 



“TWO OF THE WIGGINSES— 
TOTS AND BOTTOMS OF 1803.” 

Gillray. 




PARISIAN HEAD-DRESSES FOR APRIL, l 8 l 2 . 


BelPs Fashionable Magazine~ 




















232 CHATS ON COSTUME 

“If I were a poet I might observe, on this 
occasion, that so much beauty, set off with all the 
advantages of dress, would be too powerful an 
antagonist for the opposite sex ; and therefore it was 
wisely ordered that our ladies should want taste, lest 
their admirers should entirely want reason.” 

It has always been, however, and is still, a stock 
saying with foreigners that English women are ill- 
dressed, but the saying has little point in it, since the 
majority of English fashions still come from abroad. 
On the comparatively rare occasions when English 
women rely upon their own invention, taste, and 
judgment, they appear better dressed than the women 
of any European country. English women under 
these circumstances, therefore, if the above statement 
as to their personality be true, must necessarily be 
the most charming creatures in the world. 

Amongst modern head-dresses the Spanish man¬ 
tilla undoubtedly stands out in pleasant relief from 
the general rule of the commonplace which obtains 
at present. It is an entirely becoming head-dress, 
and reasonable, as is also the habit of Spanish women 
of carrying fans, which are usually attached to the 
waist, and serve also the purpose of sunshades, being 
held up to the head on the sunny side of the street. 
The action is a most graceful one, and the con¬ 
venience is obvious. 

The panama hat is certainly the most satisfactory 
male headgear, both as regards appearance, health, 
durability, and comfort. 

The “ bowler ” can scarcely be said to be a thing 
of beauty. It has, however, been rendered historic 


HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS 


233 


by the Right Honourable John Burns, who has 
established a precedent by appearing at Buckingham 
Palace in this form of head-covering for the purpose 
of receiving his seals of office. 

To return once again, and finally, to the chimney¬ 
pot. Milan has just recently inaugurated her third 
International Exposition of Industries, Commerce, 
and Art : — 

“ An amusing sidelight of the Exhibition is the 
unprecedented stimulus to the sale of stovepipe hats 
occasioned by a rigid regulation excluding every 
other kind from the inaugural function. Such a 
rigid enforcement is quite unknown in Rome itself, 
where there are said to be Cabinet Ministers, 
Senators, and Deputies who are innocent of ever 
having donned one. The story is told that several 
provincial Deputies who were invited to Milan were 
so fearful of mishap that they bought tall hats for 
their wives as well as themselves ” ( Vide daily paper). 



fool’s cap of leather, german. 

Worn by the court fool of an Elector of Mayence (seventeenth century). 
Sotith Kensington Museum. 





IX 


THE DRESSING 
OF THE HAIR, 
MOUSTACHIOS, 
AND BEARD 


“ Trtiewit. A wise lady will keep guard always upon the place, 
that she may do things securely. I once followed a rude fellow into 
a chamber, where the poor madam, for haste, and troubled, snatched 
at her peruke to cover her baldness, and put it on the wrong way. 

“ Cleriniont. O prodigy ! 

“ Truewit. And the unconscionable knave held her in compliment 
an hour with that reversed face, when I still looked when she should 
talk from the other side. 

“ Clerimoiit. Why, thou shouldst have relieved her. 

“ Truewit. No, faith, I let her alone, as we’ll let this argument, 
if you please, and pass to another.” 

Ben Jonson, The Silent JVoman, Act I. sc. i. 


COMB (IIALIAN, FOURTEENTH CENTURY). 



IX 

THE DRESSING OF THE HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND 

BEARD 

There was nothing new, even in the days of Solomon; 
wigs, curling irons, hair powder, and turned-up mous- 
tachios being no exception to the rule. 

We have abundant evidence, both from the con¬ 
curring testimony of authors and from the actual 
works which have come down to us, that heated irons 
were employed from a very early period for the pur¬ 
pose of curling the hair and beard. Both with the 
Assyrians, and the Greeks of the earlier period, the 
hair and beard were plaited in a series of symmetrical 
curls and ringlets, displaying the utmost degree of 

formality in their arrangement. 

237 






















































































































238 CHATS ON COSTUME 

The hair and beard of Belshazzar when he “ made 
a great feast to a thousand of his lords,” and received 
an intimation of an unpleasant character, conveyed 
to him in an unusual manner, were certainly curled 
in such wise, and probably dyed and powdered, as 
was the custom, the powder, however, being gold 
instead of flour, as in more recent days. As a matter 
of fact, gold was employed in various ways as an 

enrichment to the hair. 
The Kings of Egypt had 
their beards interwoven 
with gold thread. 

Herodotus assures us 
that the skulls of the 
Egyptians were much 
harder than those of the 
Persians, owing to the 
national custom of shaving 
the heads of their children 
at a very early age. He 
adds, “ In other countries 
the priests of the gods 
wear long hair ; in Egypt 
they have it shaved. With 
other men it is customary in mourning for the 
nearest relations to have their heads shorn; the 
Egyptians, on occasions of death, let the hair grow 
both on the head and face, though till then they used 
to shave.” 

The ceremonies and customs relating to the beard 
are innumerable. The management of the beard 
formed a considerable part of the religion of the 



ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF, 

Layard's NinevehC' 





DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 239 


Tartars, who waged a long and bloody war with the 
Persians, declaring them infidels, though in other 
respects of the same faith as themselves, because they 
refused to cast their whiskers after the mode or rite 
of the Tartars. 

It has been recorded that the Greeks wore their 
beards until the time of Alexander, who, fearful lest 
the length of their beards should prove a handle to 
their enemies,commanded 
the Macedonians to be 
shaven, and the first who 
shaved at Athens ever 
after bore the addition 
of xoporjg (shaven) on 
medals. Notwithstanding 
this statement, however, 

Philip, the father of 
Alexander, as well as 
Amyras and Archelous, 
his predecessors, are re¬ 
presented without beards. 

According to Pliny, the 
Romans did not begin to 
shave until the year 
Rome 454, when P. Titi 
nius brought over a stock of barbers from Sicily. Pliny 
adds that Scipio Africanus was the first to introduce 
the fashion of shaving daily. It became the custom 
to have visits of ceremony at the cutting of the beard 
for the first time. The first fourteen Roman Em¬ 
perors shaved until the time of the Emperor Adrian, 
who discontinued the practice and wore a beard, for 



Hope's ‘‘Cosiume of the Ancients." 










240 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the purpose, however, of hiding the scars on his 
face. 

From Gregory of Tours we learn that in the Royal 
family of France it was for a long time the peculiar 
privilege of Kings and Princes of the blood to wear 
long hair, artfully dressed and curled ; everybody 
else was polled, as a sign of inferiority and obedi¬ 
ence. To cut off the hair of a son of France under 
the first race of Kings was to exclude him from the 
right of succession to the crown, and to reduce him 
to the condition of a subject. 

French historians, however, tell us that Charle¬ 
magne wore his hair short, his son much shorter, 
and Charles the Bald, as his surname indicates, none 
at all. 

Good Luitprand furiously declaimed against the 
Emperor Phocyas for wearing long hair, after the 
manner of all the other Emperors of the East, with 
the exception of Theophilus, who, being bald, enjoined 
all his subjects to shave their heads, like the fox of 
^sop, who, having survived the experience of a trap 
by the sacrifice of his tail, harangued the other 
foxes on the inconvenience of tails in general, and 
endeavoured to persuade them to cut off theirs also. 

In the Church, too, in spite of the beard of Aaron, 
“ that went down to the skirts of his garments,” the 
Nazarite law, and the reputed long hair of the founder 
of Christianity, the priesthood habitually condemned 
long hair as being inconsistent with the sacred 
character of the priest’s office. Pope Anictus is 
supposed to have been the first to forbid the clergy 
to wear long hair. “The Holy Prelate, Wulstan, 






GREEK HEAD-DRESSES. 


Hope's “ Costume of the Ancients'' 


i6 














242 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


reproved the wicked of all ranks with great boldness 
but he rebuked those with the greatest severity who 
were proud of their long hair.” ^ The Nazarite vow 
is an act of sacrifice in accordance with the terms of 
the law laid down in Num. vi. 1-21 : “All the days 
of the vow of his separation shall no razor come upon 
his head ” ; “ He shall be holy, and shall let the locks 
of his hair grow.” 

The Nazarite has been regarded as a conqueror 
who subdued his temptations, and who wore his long 
hair as a crown, the hair being worn rough as a 
protest against foppery. Another view, however, is 
that it was kept elaborately dressed, a proof of the 
existence of the custom being seen in the seven locks 
of Samson :— 

“ And she made him sleep upon her knees ; and 
she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off 
the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict 
him, and his strength went from him ” (Judg. xvi. 19). 

Let us listen to the story in the quaint, silvery 
music of Chaucer :— 

“ This Sampson neyther si.ser dronk ne wyn 
Ne on his heed com rasour noon ne schere 
By precept of the messager divyn 
For alle his strengthes in his heres were. 

Unto his lemman Dalida he tolde 
That in his heres al his strengthe lay 
And falsly to his foomen sche him solde 
And slepying in hir barm upon a day 

* William of Malmesbury. 




roman HEAD-DRESSES. 
Hope's Costume of the Ancients." 




















244 


CHATS ON COSTUME 

Sche made to clippe or schere his heres away 
And made his foomen al his craft espien 
And whan thay fond him in this array 
Thay bound him fast and put out bothe his yen. 

“ But er his heer clipped was or i-schave 
Ther was no bond with which men might him 
bynde 

But now is he in prisoun in a cave 
Ther as thay made him at the querne grynde 
O noble Sampson strongest of al man kynde 
O whilom jugge in glory and in richesse 
Now maystow wepe with thine eyyen blynde 
Sith thou fro wele art falle to wrecchednesse.” 

Monk's Tale. 

While the hair was the pride, the glory, and the 
strength of Samson, it was the bane of Absalom, for 
by the abundance of his hair he met his death. 

‘‘ In all Israel there was none to be so much praised 
as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot 
even to the crown of his head there was no blemish 
in him. And when he polled his head (for it was 
at every year’s end that he polled it: because the 
hair was heavy, therefore he polled it), he weighed 
the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the 
king’s weight.” ^ Had he polled it at more frequent 
intervals he might have made good his succession to 
the crown, and Solomon never have been king, for 
Absalom had “ stolen the hearts of the people of 
Israel.” 

^ 2 Sam. xiv. 25, 26. 


DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 245 

As in a mighty river we may trace back its course 
to the little rill or rivulet which trickles from the 
mountain side, so we may often trace the origin of 
great events to very small beginnings. How might 
the face of both French and English history have 
been changed but for Peter Lombard’s dislike of a 
beard ! Louis VI 1 . imagined it a matter of con¬ 
science to give an example of submission to the 
command of the bishops on the subject of long hair, 
and to atone for his many cruelties by being shaved 
in public. He reckoned, however, without his—wife, 
Eleanor of Aquitaine, a jocose madcap, who rallied 
him upon his short hair and shaven chin. “ I thought 
I had married a prince, but find I have wedded nothing 
but a monk.” The breach occasioned by a bare face 
was widened, and the marriage dissolved. Six weeks 
afterwards Eleanor was again a wife—Henry, Duke 
of Normandy, who afterwards reigned as Henry 11 , 
of England, being the husband, who obtained with 
her fair Aquitaine with its three provinces. Hence 
arose those wars which ravaged France for near three 
centuries, in which upwards of three millions of 
Frenchmen perished on the fields of Cressy, Agin- 
court, and Poitiers, and on many a lesser field. 

Henry I. issued an edict for the suppression of 
long hair, and as a natural consequence long hair 
immediately became the rage. This edict, however, 
was the result of a visit to Normandy, and the 
preaching of a prelate named Serlo, whose eloquence 
was such that the monarch and his courtiers were 
moved to tears. The astute priest, perceiving the 
impression he had created, immediately whipped a 


246 


Cl/ATS ON COSTUME 


pair of scissors from his sleeve and cropped the whole 
congregation ! 

The patriarchal beard and long hair of Edward III., 
as exhibited in his effigy at Westminster, is in strict 
conformity with the general character of this serious 
minded monarch, strongly contrasting with the 
character of his successor, Richard of Bordeaux, 
who was the greatest fop of the day. 

During the century which followed the reign of 
Edward III. beards were worn of every imaginable 
cut. There was the fantail beard, with its wadded 
nightcap for protection during sleep, of the stiffen¬ 
ing which was applied. There was, as later, the 
cathedral beard, the spade beard, the stiletto beard, 
and there was an extraordinary curled tuft which 
resembled a corkscrew. There was apparently as 
much variety of colour as of form— 

“ I will discharge it in either your straw-colour 
beard, your orange tawny beard, your purple-in-grain 
beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect 
yellow” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act I. 
sc. 2). 

Our Royal “ Bluebeard ” registered a solemn vow 
before the French Ambassador that he would never 
touch razor till he had visited “ his good brother ” 
upon the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the “ good 
brother ” making a similar vow. With characteristic 
“ English perfidy ” Henry broke his vow, while the 
Frenchman remained true; it was therefore found 
necessary for Sir Thomas Boleyn to apologise for 
his master’s bad faith by saying that “ the Queen of 
England felt an insuperable antipathy to a bushy chin.” 


DI?£SS/NG HAIR, MO US TA CHIOS, AND BEARD 247 

Henry, indeed, not only shaved his own chin and 
wore his hair short, but commanded all his subjects 
to do the same. He granted the barbers a new charter, 
incorporated them with the surgeons, and became a 
member of their company. 

It was found that the “science and connyng of 
Physyke and Surgerie” was practised by unskilful 
persons, “ common artificers, as Smythes, wevers, and 
women,” ^ who “ boldely and custumably take upon 
theim grete curis, and thyngys of great difihcultie, in 
which they partely use socery and whichcrafte” to 
the grievous hurt of the Kyng’s liege people. It was 
therefore enacted that none should practise as a 
physician and surgeon in London except by exami¬ 
nation, duly approved by the Bishop of London or 
Dean of St. Paul’s (!). As it seemed needful to provide 
skilful surgeons for the “ helth of mans body whan 
infirmities and seckness shal happen,” and as there 
are many surgeons in London who give instructions 
to students, who exercise of the said science “ to the 
greate relief, comforte, and soccour of muche people, 
and to the sure savegard of their bodily helth, their 
lymmes and lyves,” and as two companies of surgeons 
exist in London, one “ the Barbours of London, and 
thother company the Surgeons of London,” which 
company of harbours were first incorporated “ undre 
the greate Seale of the late King of famous memory, 

I “ Phisicke is good, and yet I would wish that every 
ignorant doult, and especially women, that have as much 
knowledge in phisick or surgery as hath jackeanapes, being 
but smatterers in the same noble sciences, should be restrained 
from the publike use therof ” unless they do it gratis (Stubbes, 
“ Anatomy of Abuses,” 1583). 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


248 

Edwarde the iiijth, dated at Westminster the xxiiijth 
day of February in the first yere of his reigne,” these 
two companies ought therefore to be united into one 
body, with a common seal, power to hold lands, and 
all the rights of both the old companies. 

It was further found that surgeons were in the 



habit of taking diseased persons into their houses, 
where they “ doo use and exercise barbery, as wassh- 
ing and shaving, and other feates therunto belong¬ 
ing,” very perilous to the King’s people. Now, “after 
the feast of the Nativitie of our Lorde God next 
coming,” no barber in London shall practise surgery, 


DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 249 

“ letting of bludde, or any other thing belonging to 
surgery, drawing of teth onelye except!' And no 
surgeon shall “ occupye or exercise the feate or 
crafte of barbarye or shaving,” either by himself or 
by any other for him, to his or their use. 

It was also provided that any person may keep a 
barber or a surgeon as his servant, who may practise 
in his master’s house. 

It would appear that the observance of the Lord’s 
day was more strictly enforced in the seventeenth 
century than it is at present— 

“Att the Councell Chamber on Ouze bridge at 
York ye xxth of June, A.D. 1676,” it was declared 
and enacted that whereas barber surgeons have been 
shaving and cutting hair on the Lord’s day. We 
order, that if “ any brother of the said company tonse, 
barbe, or trim any person on the Lord’s day, in any 
Inn,” or other place, public or private, of which the 
Lord Mayor shall judge, he shall be fined ten 
shillings, and the searchers of the said company for 
the time being are to make diligent search in all 
public and private houses as aforesaid, for discovery 
of such offenders. 

1745 was the fatal year of the separation of the 
barbers from their more dignified colleagues. Their 
wings were clipped, their privileges curtailed, the 
barber’s pole and basin, however, still remaining, in 
silent, eloquent testimony of their former glory and 
greatness.’^ 

^ The fillet which encircles the barber’s pole indicates the 
ribbon used for bandaging the arm in bleeding, and the basin 
the vessel to receive the blood. 


250 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


In the reign of Good Queen Bess the campaign 
against long hair is continued. Philip Stubbes extols 
barbers to the skies: “ There are no finer fellowes 
under the Sunne, nor exporter in their noble science 
of barbing than they be.” Barbers are necessary. 
“ I cannot but marvell at the beastlinesse of some 
ruffians (for they are no sober Christians) that will 
have their hair grow over their faces like monsters, 
and savage people ; rather like mad men than other¬ 
wise, hanging downe over their shoulders, as womens 
haire doth ; which indeed is an ornament to them, 
being given them as a sign of subjection.” In man 
it is a “ shame and reproch, as the Apostle proveth.” 

During the reign of the Stuarts long hair was the 
vogue—with “ love-loeks ” and “ heart breakers.” 

“A long love-lock on his left shoulder plight. 
Like to a woman’s hair, well showed a woman’s 
sprite.” 

“ His beard was ruddy hue, and from his head 
A wanton lock itself did down dispread 
Upon his back ; to which, while he did live, 

Th’ ambiguous name of Elf-lock he did give.” 

The Great Oyer. 

The absurd fashion of painting and patching the 
face, much ridiculed by the satirists, began in the 
reign of Elizabeth. 

“ Whers the Devill ? 

He’s got a boxe of women’s paint— 

Where pride is, thers the Divell too.” 

Quips upon Questions^ 1600. 


DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 251 

“ This is an Embleame for those painted faces, 

Where devine beautie rests her for awhile, 

Filling their browes with stormes and great disgraces. 
That on the pained soule yeelds not a smile. 

But puts true love into perpetuall exile ; 

Hard-hearted Soule, such fortune light on thee 
That thou maist be transform’d as well as he.” 

Chester’s Love's Martyr, i6oi. 


By the reign of James 1 . this ridiculous fashion had 
become common. All 
sorts of curious de¬ 
vices were made use 
of — spots, stars, 
crescents, and in one 
woodcut a coach and 
coachman with two 
horses and postilions 
appear upon the 
lady’s forehead. The 
fashion continued for 
a long period ; in fact, 
during the greater 
part of the Georgian 
era, when it had de¬ 
generated into mere 
spots or small 
patches. At the 
close of the eighteenth century it had entirely 
disappeared.I 



A PAINTED FACE. 
Roxburghe Ballads. 


^ He speaks like a lady for all the world, and never swears, 
as Mr. Flash does, but wears nice white gloves, and tells me 




252 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ Wherfor, faire doughtres, takithe ensaumple, and 
holde it in your herte that ye put no thinge to poppe, 
painte, and fayre youre visages, the which is made 
after Goddes ymage, otherwise thanne your Creatoure 
and nature hath ordeined ; and that ye plucke no 
browes, nother temples, nor forked ; and also that ye 
wasshe not the here of youre hede in none other 
thing but in lye and water” (“Advice of the Knight 
of La Tour Landry to his iij doughtres ”). 

THE INVINCIBLE PRIDE OF WOMEN. 

I have a Wife, the more’s my care, who like a gaudy 
peacock goes. 

In top-knots, patches, powder’d hair, besides she is 
the worst of shrows; 

This fills my heart with grief and care to think I 
must this burden bear. 

It is her forecast to contrive to rise about the hour 
of Noon, 

And if she’s trimm’d and rigg’d by five, why this 
I count is very soon ; 

Then goes she to a ball or play, to pass the 
pleasant night away. 

what ribands become my complexion, where to stick my 
patches, who is the best milliner, where they sell the best tea, 
and which is the best wash for the face and the best paste for 
the hands ; he is always playing with my fan, and showing his 
teeth ; and when ever I speak, he pats me—so—and cries, 
‘ The devil take me, Miss Biddy, but you’ll be my perdition— 
ha, ha, ha !”’ (David Garrick, “ Miss in Her Teens,” 1747). 


DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 253 

And when she home returns again, conducted by 
a bully spark, 

If that I in the least complain, she does my words 
and actions mark. 

And does likewise my gullet tear, then roars like 
thunder in the air. 

I never had a groat with her, most solemnly I here 
declare ; 

Yet she’s as proud as I.ucifer, and cannot study 
what to wear : 

In sumptuous robes she still appears, while I am 
forc’d to hide my ears. 

The lofty Top-knots on her crown, with which she 
sails abroad withal, 

Makes me with care, alas! look down, as having 
now no hope at all. 

That ever I shall happy be in such a flaunting 
Wife as she. 

In debt with every shop she runs, for to appear in 
gaudy pride. 

And when the milliner she duns, I then am forc’d 
my head to hide : 

Dear friends, this proud imperious wife she makes 
me weary of my life. 

Ro^cburghe Ballads, circa 1686. 

Wigs of various kinds have been in use from very 

early periods, as the grace and ornament which the 

hair imparts to the human frame have always been 


254 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


generally recognised. The want of it has ever been 
deemed a subject of reproach, held in ridicule, in all 
climes ; hence the constant recourse to false hair. 

Strutt affirms that the beards of the Egyptians, as 
well as the coverings for the head, appear to have 
been made of false hair, and removed when the face 
was shaved. There is no doubt that the Egyptians 


wore wigs, as examples 
are to be seen in the 
British and other 
museums. 



The wig given in the 
illustration is probably 
a woman’s, and was 
found near the small 
temple of Isis at Thebes. 
It belongs to the seven¬ 
teenth dynasty, about 
B.C. 1500; it is formed 
of natural curlings of 
the hair in the upper 
portion, and the lower 
portion, which was ori¬ 
ginally much longer, 
consists of long, thin 


WIG, EGYPTIAN, B.C. I50O. 
British Museum. 


plaits, a number of which have been broken off 
and decayed, the thin plaitings contrasting very 
happily with the natural curls. 

Lamprideses describes the wig of the Emperor 
Commodus as powdered with scrapings of gold, and 
oiled with glutinous perfumes for the powder to 
hang by. 














DRESSING HA/R, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 255 

Wigs first appear in England during the reign of 
Stephen, but are seldom mentioned until the Tudor 
period. The “ Maiden Queen ” is popularly supposed 
to have had her head shaved, and to have worn a 
wig. Mary Queen of Scots had a most complete 
collection of wigs, and it is recorded that she wore 
one at her execution. 

The periwig first appears in history as the head- 
gear of a fool. In the privy purse expenses of 
Henry VIII. for December, 1522, occurs the entry: 
“ For a peryke for Sexton the King’s fool xx 
shillings.” By the middle of the same century their 
use had become general, and it was dangerous for 
children to wander alone, as they were liable to be 
deprived of their hair for the manufacture of these 
articles. 

The periwig blossomed out during the reign of 
Charles II., and attained enormous proportions; it 
was often gaily decked with ribbons and allowed to 
hang over the front and back for some distance. 

The gossiping Pepys, complaining in his diary of 
October 30, 1663, of his extravagant purchases in 
wigs, clothes, &c., mentions, amongst other things, two 
periwigs, “one whereof cost me and the other 40s. 
I have worn neither yet, but will begin next week, 
God willing.” 

“ A Londoner into the country went. 

To visit his tennants, and gather in rent; 

He on a brave gelding did gallantly ride. 

With boots and with spurs, and a sword by his 
side. 


256 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Because that the Innkeepers they will not score 

He lined his pockets with silver good store ; 

And he wore a wigg cost three guineas and 
more; 

His hat was cockt up, Sir, behind and before.” 

Roxburghe Ballads, 1688. 

Wigs when first worn were extremely expensive, 
costing as much as a hundred guineas, and their value 
often led to their being stolen from the head. 

The different shapes which the wig assumed were 
innumerable, and the different classes of society were 
identified with particular shaped wigs. There were 
the clerical and the physical; the huge tie peruke for 
the man of law, the brigadier and the tremendous 
fox-ear or cluster of temple curls with a pigtail 
behind, for the Army and Navy. (The Army pigtail 
was shortened to seven inches in 1804, in 1808 
was cut off altogether.) The merchant, the man of 
business and of law affected the grave full-bottom ; 
the tradesman was distinguished by the snug bob or 
natty scratch ; the country gent by the natural fly 
and hunting peruke ; “ the coachman wore his, as do 
some to this day, in imitation of the curled hair of a 
water-dog.” 

There were also, as a writer in the London Maga¬ 
zine of 1753 informs us, the pigeon’s wing, the comet, 
the cauliflower, the royal bird, the staircase, the 
ladder, the brush, the wild boar’s back, the temple, 
the rhinoceros, the corded wolf’s paw, Count Saxe’s 
mode, the she-dragon, the rose, the crutch, the 
negligent, the chancellor, the cut bob, the long bob. 



beau feilding. 
After Wissing. 


17 


NEW YORK, N. Y 





//RRflRV ^ 








258 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


the half natural, the chain-buckle, the corded buckle, 
the snail back, and many others. 

“ The Judge,” says Fortescue, “ while he sitteth in 
the King’s Courts, weareth a white quoife of silke, 
which is the principal and chiefe insignement of 
habite wherewith Sergeants-at-lawe are dekked, and 
neither the Justice nor the Sergeant shall ever put off 
the quoife, no, not in the King’s presence, though he 
bee in talke with his majestie’s highnesse.” 

The coif-cap is still worn on occasions when the 
Judge passes sentence of death, but with the colour 
changed to black, the cap being worn over the 
wig. 

Samuel Rogers in his “Table Talk” tells a good 
story of Lord Ellenborough’s wig. On one occasion 
when the distinguished Judge was about to go on 
circuit, his Lady intimated that she would like to 
accompany him. He replied that he had no objection, 
provided she did not encumber the carriage with band- 
boxes, which were his utter abhorrence. During the 
first day’s journey, happening to stretch his legs, he 
struck his foot against something below the seat, and 
discovered that it was one of the detested band-boxes. 
Up went the window, and out went the band-box. 
The coachman stopped, and the footman, thinking 
that the band-box had tumbled out of the window by 
some extraordinary chance, was about to pick it up. 
“ Drive on ! ” thundered his lordship. The band-box 
was accordingly left by the ditch. Upon his arrival 
at the court at which he was to officiate, and arraying 
himself for his appearance at the court-house, “ Now,” 
said he, “ where’s my wig ?—where is my wig ? ” 





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26 o 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


“ My lord,” replied the attendant, “ it was thrown out 
of the carriage window ! ” 

From 1770 onwards was the period of the highest 
blossoming of feminine head-gear. The bodies of 
these enormous creations were formed of tow, over 
which the hair was drawn in great curls, rolls, bobs, 
&c., with false hair added, the whole freely plastered 
over with powder, pomatum, &c., decorated with huge 
bows, ribbons, feathers, and flowers. 

In the “ Macaroni Dialogue”—a colloquy between 
Sir Harry Dimple and Lady Betty Frisky—in the 
Lady's Magazine, iv. 1773, which is illustrated by 
a picture of a lady and gentleman discussing with 
great animation the merits of the male and female 
costumes of this period, in which they are clad, the 
gentleman is presenting to the lady a nosegay, and 
she invites his interest in the excessively lofty coiffure 
which she is wearing. 

“ Permit me to present your ladyship with this 
boquet—it has been to Warren’s, doubly perfumed 
and scented ; so that positively, my lady, it has not 
the least of the vulgar odour of the flowers.” “ I vow. 
Sir Harry, you are a man of such nice sensations 
that you would do honour to nobility. I am surprised 
you have hitherto been overlooked in the creation of 
Lords.” “To be sure, my lady, my taste has never 
yet been called into question. It was I who first 
dethroned those abominable monsters the Bucks, and 
established the reign of the Macaronies—who first 
improved upon the Poudre a la marechale by throwing 
in a dash of the violet. This hat your ladyship sees 
is of my own cocking—those barbarians the hatters 



RIDICULOUS TASTE, OR THE LAUY’S ABSURDITY 




















262 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


have no more idea of ‘ de retrousser un chapeau ’ for 
a man of genuine taste, than they know how to wear 
it, and send it home with the smell of the dye, almost 
sufficient to make one faint. I always order my 
valet to give it a thorough perfume before it comes 
into my presence.” “ O ! exquisite refinement—what 
do you think of my cap?” “Amazing, my lady, beyond 
description—yet had it been but an inch higher, it 
would have been at the very summit of the mode— 
you would then have been unable to come into a 
room without stooping, or riding in a coach without 
the top being heightened.” “You see. Sir Harry, I 
have anticipated you: that upon the table is two inches 
higher; I shall wear it to-morrow night at the 
Pantheon.” “ I hope I shall have the felicity of your 
ladyship’s hand to walk a minuet. We shall have all 
eyes upon us, no doubt! ” “I beg. Sir Harry, that 
your club may be increased in proportion to my head, 
else we shall not be fit partners.” “ My lady, I shall 
have it as large again—my toupee shall be heightened 
three inches.” “You will then. Sir Harry, be the 
emperor of the Macaronies.” “ And you, my lady, 
their empress.” 

In a print of the period of the French lady in 
London, by J. H. Grimm, published by Carrington 
Bowles, who appears to have been somewhat of a wag 
amongst publishers, devoting himself to the curious 
and extraordinary, the lady is seen bowing as she 
enters the room, the head-dress reaching to the top 
of the ceiling. The good man of the house is so 
astonished and overcome that he falls to the ground, 
bringing the table with him. A large picture upon 
the wall represents the Peak of Teneriffe. 






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ink 


THE FRENCH LADY IN LONDON 














264 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


Another print, issued by the same publisher, repre¬ 
senting the fashionable head-dresses for the year 
1776, shows two ladies out walking, attended by 
their black servant, with head-dresses two yards 
high. 

In the illustration given of “Ridiculous Taste, or the 
Lady’s Absurdity,” Monsieur le Friseur is mounted 

on a high pair of 
steps, and is oper¬ 
ating upon the sum¬ 
mit of the lady’s 
coiffure; a gentle¬ 
man is taking stock, 
and giving orders 
from below. 

In the example 
given from “Jacque- 
min,” the head-dress 
represents a ship in 
full sail. 

In 1776 an etching 
appeared entitled 
“Bunker’s Hill, or 
America’s Head¬ 
dress.” The enor- 

HEAD-DRESS. , , 

mous headgear of 
E'roni Jacqucniiii. 111 

tne lady represents 

the battle, with tents, fortifications, cannon, and bat¬ 
talions. From the crests of the three hills of the 
head-dress, which are duly fortified and defended 
with soldiery and cannon, three banners are flying, 
on which are figured, respectively, a goose, a monkey. 



dress/NG HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 26S 

and two ladies holding arrows. The lower portion of 
the head-dress represents a sea fight. 

In the same year appeared “The New Fashioned 
Phaeton,” a mezzotint representing a conveyance 
provided with springs, which lifts the lady and her 
headgear up to the first-floor window, and does away 
with the need for walking up and down stairs. 

Another print issued by the same publisher is a 
“ hint to the ladies to take care of their heads.” The 
ladies’ head-dress having caught alight from a 
chandelier hanging from the ceiling of a high room, 
and people are putting out the fire by means of large 
squirts. 

A charming design for a fancy head - dress is 
entitled “ Betty the Cook maids Head drest.” It 
is in the form of a heart, the centre of which is 
occupied by a Cheshire cheese with mice, surrounded 
with a border of greengrocery, &c. On the summit 
is a stove, with fire alight and meat cooking. A 
monkey sits upon the stove, wearing a fool’s cap and 
bells, and admiring himself in a mirror. On either 
side of the head-dress are two trophies composed 
respectively of a mop and fire-irons and a besom and 
cooking utensils. 

The legend runs— 

“ The taste at present all may see. 

But none can tell what is to be. 

Who knows, when fashion’s whims are spread. 
But each may wear this kitchen head? 

The noddle that so vastly swells. 

May wear a fool’s cap hung with bells.” 


266 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


High plumes of feathers re-appeared in 1796. 
Gillray produced a caricature of a fashionable belle 
journeying to the Assembly Rooms at Bath in a 
sedan chair. The top of the conveyance is opened 
to accommodate the lady’s head-dress, a monstrous 
feather projecting yards above the sedan—a parasol 
is fastened to a long pole strapped on the back of 
the hindermost portion and protecting the top. 

During the feather period, a favourite idea was to 
represent attacks by ostriches, peacocks, and other 
interested birds. This occurs in a number of prints 
of the period. The print by John Collet, 1779, of 
“ The Feathered Fair is a Fright ; or. Restore the 
Borrowed Plumes,” represents two girls attacked by 
ostriches:— 

“Two lassies who would like their mistresses shine. 
On their heads clap’d some feathers to make 
them look fine ; 

When two ostriches suddenly came within sight. 
And put the poor girls in a terrible fright. 

“ But how the Birds got to England’s no matter, 
Tho’ they certainly made a most terrible clatter; 
Fanny screamed as she ran, and scampering Polly, 
With her Fan fought the birds in defence of her 
folly.” 

If the reader be curious in regard to the modus 
operandi of these astonishing creations, he (or more 
probably it will be she) is referred to “ Plocacosmos; 
or. The Whole Art of Hairdressing,” by James Stewart, 
1782, wherein the mysteries of the art are set forth 


DRESS/NG HAIR^ MOUSTACHIOS^ AND BEARD 26 / 

with great minuteness and elaboration, far too long 
to be explained here. The directions for the lady’s 
“nightcap ” may, however, be given :— 

“ All that is required at night is to take the cap or 
toke off, as any other ornament, and as you put them 
on, you can easily know how to take them off: with 
regard to the hair, nothing need be touched but the 
curls ; you may take the pins out of them, and, with 
a little soft pomatum in your hands, stroke the hairs 
that may have started ; do them with nice long 
rollers, wind them up to the roots, and turn the end 
of each roller firmly in to keep them tight, remember¬ 
ing at the same time the hair should never be combed 
at night, having always so bad an effect as to give a 
violent headache next day. After the curls are rolled 
up, touch them with your pomatumy hands, and 
stroke the hair behind ; after that take a very large 
net fillet, which must be big enough to cover the 
head and hair, and put it on, and drawing the 
strings to a proper tightness behind, till it closes 
all round the face and neck like a purse, bring the 
strings round the front and back again to the neck, 
where they must be tied ; this, with the finest lawn 
handkerchief, is night covering sufficient for the 
head.” 

“ Heads ” usually lasted a matter of three weeks, 
when—’twould be dangerous, madam, to delay longer 
the opening of your head. VVe get a glimpse of the 
possible state of a lady’s head at the expiration of 
that time from the many recipes and adv^ertisements 
for the destruction of insects in the magazines of the 
period, which reminds us of Julian, who likened his 


268 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


beard to a “ forest grown populous with troublesome 
little animals.” 

“ Still to be neat, still to be drest, 

As you were going to a feast ; 

Still to be powdered, still perfumed : 

Lady, it is to be presumed. 

Though art’s hid causes are not found. 

All is not sweet, all is not sound. 

Give me a look, give me a face. 

That makes simplicity a grace ; 

Robes loosely flowing, hair as free : 

Such sweet neglect more taketh me. 

Than all the adulteries of art; 

They strike mine eyes, but not mine heart.” 

Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman. 

The apeing by the tradespeople of the manners 
of the great is amusingly told in the Lady's Magazine 
for August, 1782, in the form of a letter to the editor, 
purporting to be from a respectable greengrocer, who 
signs himself “ Artichoke Pulse.” He says : “ I wish 
to God you would write something smart against 
fashion. My family is almost ruined by the article 
of dress.” It appeared that his son Tom had worked 
himself into a gentleman’s family as footman, and 
from this circumstance his troubles began. “ You 
can scarcely conceive, my dear Sir, what an altera¬ 
tion this acquaintance with the great family has 
made. Sally, my eldest daughter, talks of taste and 
the mode, aye faith, and the dresses too. I will give 
you a description of her going to see the new comedy 


dressing hair, moustachios, and beard 269 

of the ‘ East Indian ’ the other night, in company with 
her brothers and sisters, and a lord’s footman, who 
presented them with orders for the two-shilling 
gallery. 

“ Dick Dusty, the hairdresser’s apprentice, who 
lives in a court near us, was sent for at two o’clock. 



LOUIS XVI., MARIE ANTOINETTE, AND THE DAUPHIN. 
Engraved by Augustin de St. Aubin. 


and two pound of Sangwine’s eightpenny-half- 
penny powder being procured, with a proper 
quantity of grease, the operation of the head was 
begun among the cabbages, lettuces, turnips, carrots, 
peas, and beans that surrounded us. Dick, who was 






2JO CHATS ON COSTUME 

but a novice at his business, cut and slashed away 
until he had left just as much hair as he could con¬ 
veniently dress, and then, having worked the grease 
and the flour into a kind of paste, he plaistered over 
the head, using his hand as a trowel, until it was 
fairly encrusted so as to hide the colour of the hair, 
or to deceive the eye into a belief that the head was a 
pudding bag turned inside out! 

“ As it was summer, my daughters chose to go 
without caps, and an artificial bouquet was stuck in 
the front of those puddings. The gowns were silk ; 
but being purchased at a pawnbroker’s they were not 
properly cut for the fashionable hoop. Hoops, how¬ 
ever, were to be wore, and even my wife resolved for 
once, to figure away in one of those oval pieces of 
nonsense.” 

“ Perhaps in nature, there was never such a figure! 
Only fashion to yourself a greengrocer’s wife issuing 
from her cellar in Drury Lane, with a monstrous 
hoop, exposing a pair of legs, the ankles as thick as 
the calf, and the calf as thick as the modern waist ; 
her hair bepuddened, her cheeks bedaubed with red, 
her neck of a crimson hue, her arms bursting through 
a pair of white gloves, the contrast between the two 
skins being almost the very opposite to each other ; a 
thick-flowered silk exposing the whole front of a 
quilted petticoat that once was white, and then you 
have the appearance of my wife ! Her daughters 
made as ridiculous a figure, and Will, I do assure 
you, was not the least remarkable in the group.” 

This sally, recounting the woes of the hapless 


DRESSING HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 

“ Artichoke,” provoked an indignant reply from a 
champion of the women, which duly appeared in 
the next number :— 

“ I think it high time, then, for every female 
to exert the little knowledge she may be possessed 
of in the scribbling line, when the wits, under the 
characters of Green Grocers, dare to insult us, and 
speak of our hoops, and other parts of our dress, 
as freely as they exercise their authority over the 
ostlers at a country inn. 

“ The favour, dear Madam, we wish of you, is to 
remonstrate with these smart gentlemen, and, with 
us, tell them they are incapable of correcting the 
foibles in the ladies’ dresses, till they have established 
a criterion for their own. Did they adopt no other 
fashions than useful and becoming ones, they might 
have some solid reasons for reprehending us; but 
how is this to be done? Can they point out of 
what use are the high-crowned hats, their shoes 
tied with strings, the number of buttons lately added 
to their coats: of what real service that ponderosity 
of their watches and canes ? We will even attend to 
the Green Grocer, if he can defend them, and no 
longer despise the opinions of those scrutators of our 
dress ; but till then we must insist that the hoop (the 
battery at which most of their present artillery is 
played off against), when of a moderate size, is an 
addition to the appearance of a fine woman ; it is 
a finishing grace to their persons, and gives them 
that dignity of appearance that every woman in 
a genteel line of life has a right to assume.” 

Although Kings have often vainly endeavoured 


2J2 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


to impose their will upon the people in the matter 
of apparel it has often happened that monarchs have 
set the prevailing fashion of the period. This is 
especially noticeable in the Cavaliers of Charles I., 
numbers of whom adopted the short, pointed beard 
and moustachios and long hair of their master, in 
striking contrast to the close cropped and shaven 
round heads of the Cromwellians. It was so with 

the Bonapartists of the 
Third Empire, when 
the “ imperial ” became 
the vogue. 

At a still more re¬ 
cent period, the illus¬ 
trious personage who 
is figured here, and 
who, be it known, ap¬ 
pears here sti'ictly in¬ 
cognito (we would fain 
escape the dire con¬ 
sequences of lese- 
majeste\ has imposed 
his imperious will, not 
only upon his own countrymen, but upon the 
world at large, in the matter of the turned up 
moustachio. 

“ When you come to be trimed, they will aske you 
whether you will be cut to looke terrible to your 
enimie, or amiable to your freend, grime and sterne 
in countenance, or pleasant and demure,—how their 
mowchatowes must be preserved and laid out, from 
one cheke to another, yea, almost from one eare to 



A REIGNING MONARCH. 



PHILIP IV. 


OF SPAIN. 


i8 






















274 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


another, and turned up like two homes towards the 
forehead ” (Stubbes, “ Anatomy of Abuses,” 1583). 

The angle at which it is pointed provides an index 
as to character, and of the degree of pugnacity of the 
wearer. At an angle of, say, 45 degrees forward we 
may expect to see its owner enter a crowded omni¬ 
bus with the point of his umbrella held at the same 
angle, or as a soldier makes ready to present arms. 

In the dressing of the hair, as in costume 
generally, the lowest depth of the commonplace 
has been reached during the nineteenth century. 
It is, however, extremely dangerous to indulge in 
any kind of sweeping generalities with respect to our 
own epoch; we are either, from long habit and custom, 
prejudiced in favour of a particular regime^ or we are 
afflicted with that contempt which is born of a too 
great familiarity. The chignon, in its many develop¬ 
ments, is within the memory of most of us; the odious 
Piccadilly fringe still endures with those persons who 
are either slaves to habit or who find that the curling 
and frizzing of the hair of the forehead destroys its 
capacity for growth. Dundreary and mutton-chop 
whiskers are even now to be found in out-of-the-way 
country places. Goldsmith, in one of his delightful 
essays, tells a story of a traveller who, on his way to 
Italy, found himself in a country where the inhabi¬ 
tants had each a large excrescence depending from 
the chin—a deformity which, as it was endemic and 
the people little used to strangers, it had been the 
custom, time immemorial, to look upon as the 
greatest beauty. Ladies grew toasts from the size 
of their chins, and no men were beaux whose 


DA^£SS/NG HAIR, MOUSTACHIOS, AND BEARD 2/5 

faces were not broadest at the bottom. It was 
Sunday; a country church was at hand, and our 
traveller was willing to perform the duties of the 
day. Upon his first appearance at the church door 
the eyes of all were fixed upon the stranger ; but 
what was their amazement when they found that he 
actually wanted that emblem of beauty, a pursed 
chin! Stifled bursts of laughter, winks, and 
whispers circulated from visage to visage ; the 
prismatic figure of the stranger’s face was a fund 
of infinite gaiety. Our traveller could no longer 
patiently continue an object of deformity to point 
at. “ Good folks,” said he, “ I perceive that I am 
a very ridiculous figure here, but I assure you I am 
reckoned no way deformed at home.” 

Lord Dundreary would have been impossible in 
any other epoch than the Victorian, although the 
Dundreary whisker is but a glorified development of 
earlier forms— 

“ A marchaunt was ther with a forked herd. 

In motteleye high on horse he sat.” 

Canterbury Tales. 

Dundreary, with his striped peg-tops, his eyeglass, 
and his drawl, exactly fitted his environment. His 
whiskers represent the very antithesis of the “ Picca¬ 
dilly fringe,” also happily gone, or relegated to the 
coster fraternity, together with the bell-bottomed 
trouser with which it is in singular affinity. 

The Piccadilly fringe was persistently condemned 
by artists, notably Mr. G. F. Watts, who pointed out 


276 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


that it obscured and destroyed the beautiful way 
in which the hair springs from the forehead. Mr. 
Watts, however, was not the first to warn the ladies 
against the sin of cropping short and pulling out the 
hair of the forehead. If there should, peradventure, 
be any fair readers who are enamoured of the beauties 
of either the Piccadilly or other fringe, or who should 
be smitten with the insane desire to pop, paint, or 
powder the face, let them listen to the sound advice 
and good counsel which the Knight of La Tour 
Landry gave to his daughters, an-d to the terrible 
“ensaumples” which he held up to them for their 
consideration and avoidance :— 

“ Alas ! ” he exclaims, “ whi take women non hede 
of the gret love that God hathe yeve hem to make 
hem after hys figure? and whi popithe they, and 
paintithe, and pluckithe her visage otherwise than 
God hath ordeined hem ? ” Why indeed! There 
was once a lady who died and suffered great tor¬ 
tures in hell, the devil holding her “ bi the tresses 
of the here of her hede, like as a lyon holdithe his 
praie . . and the same “ develle putte and thruste in 
her browes, temples, and forehede hote brenninge alles 
and nedeles ” ; and why was she subjected to all this 
torment ? Because she had ''plucked her browes^ front 
and forehed, to have awey the here, to make her selff 
the fayrer to the piesinge of the worldeP 

It is a very far cry from the good Knight of La 
Tour Landry to the wicked Mr. Punch of Fleet 
Street, who satirises the variations in the form of the 
short side whisker still beloved of butlers and ostlers, 
and which, in the early days of the Volunteer move- 


DRESSING HA/R, MOUSTACH/OS, AND BEARD 2"]"] 

ment of the beginning of the sixties, became identi¬ 
fied with particular regiments or companies :— 

“Hairdresser: South Middlesex or Keveens, sir? 
{Customer looks bewildered^) Why, sir, many corpses, 
sir, ’as a rekignised style of ’air, sir, accordin’ to the 

Reg- {Customer storms,) Not a wolunteer, sir? 

—Jus’ so, sir. Thought not, sir; leastways I was 
a-wonderin’ to myself d’rectly I see you, what 
corpse you could a belonged to, sir.” 





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BOOTS, SHOES, 
AND OTHER 
COVERINGS 
FOR THE 
FEET 


“ ‘ Who is there in the house?’ said Sam, in whose mind the inmates 
were always represented by that particular article of their costume 
which came under his immediate superintendence. ‘ There’s a wooden 
leg in number six ; there’s a pair of Hessians in thirteen ; there’s two 
pair of halves in the commercial; there’s these here painted tops in 
the snuggery inside the bar ; and five more tops in the coffee-room.’ 

“‘Nothing more?’ said the little man. 

“‘Stop a bit,’ replied Sam, suddenly recollecting himself. ‘Yes; 
there’s a pair of Wellingtons a good deal w'orn, and a pair o’ lady’s 
shoes in number five.’ 

“‘What sort of shoes?’ hastily inquired Wardle, who, together 
with Mr. Pickwick, had been lost in bewilderment at the singular 
catalogue of visitors. 

“‘Country make,’ replied Sam. 

“ ‘ Any maker’s name ?’ 

“ ‘ Brown.’ 

“‘Where of?’ 

“ ‘ Muggleton.’ 

“‘It is them!’ exclaimed Wardle. ‘By Heaven, we’ve found 
them.’ ” 


Posthumous Paters of the Pickzvick Club. 



FLEMISH FRENCH 

(eighteenth century). (seventeenth century). 


X 


BOOTS, SHOES, AND OTHER COVERINGS FOR 
THE FEET 

The good St. Crispin, of blessed memory, cobbling 
shoes for the poor by the light of his candle and 
filling up the interval with preaching, is a figure which 
all shoemakers regard with reverence. How did 
Crispin become the tutelary saint of shoemakers ? 
Well, it was in this wise. Crispin, travelling with 
his brother Crispinian, in company with St. Denis, to 
Soissons in France to propagate the Christian faith, 
towards the close of the third century, in order that 
he might not be a burden to others for his main¬ 
tenance, exercised at night the trade of shoemaker, 
preaching the Gospel by day. The shoes were sold 
at a low price to the poor, an angel (so the legend 
recounts) miraculously furnishing the leather. Accord- 

281 



282 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


ing to another version of the legend, the saint stole 
the leather, so as to enable him to benefit the poor. 
Crispin’s efforts, like those of so many other bene¬ 
factors of their kind, were poorly rewarded. He was 
ordered to be beheaded, and suffered martyrdom in 
287 A.D., not, however, for his shoemaking, or for his 
thefts, but on account of his religious tenets. Some 
accounts state that he and his 
brother were flung into a cauldron 
of molten lead. 

The brotherhood of the shoe¬ 
makers has always included men 
of remarkable character and 
parts. Hans Sachs, born at 
Nuremburg in 1494, the most 
eminent German poet of his time; 
George Fox, first of Quakers, 
true follower of Crispin, dividing 
his time and energies between 
shoemaking and preaching; Wil¬ 
liam Gifford, less remembered 
perhaps as a shoemaker than for 
his editorship of the famous Quarterly —these are a 
few only of the men “ who have imparted a glory 
to the ‘gentle craft,’ as shoemaking has been called 
since the days of the illustrious Crispin,” and invested 
it with distinction.I 

" Thomas Deloney’s “ booke called the Gentle Crafte, 
intreating of Showmakers,” tells how Crispin and Crispianus, 
sons of King Logrid of Britain and of Queen Estreda, were 
sheltered at Faversham, Kent. Crispin wooed and married 
Princess Ursula, whose son was born in the shoemaker’s 



CLOG, OR PATTEN. 
FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



BOOTS, SHOES, AND OTHER EOOT-COFERINGS 283 

The universal observance by Eastern nations of 
the custom of removing the shoes as a mark of 
reverence is in obedience to the command given to 
Moses from the burning bush at Horeb : “ Put off 
thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
thou standest is holy ground.” The Western practice 
of uncovering the reverse end of the human anatomy 
presents a curious and somewhat startling contrast. 

Footgear began as a protection to the soles of the 
feet, since it is the soles which necessarily demand 
some sort of protection until that time when the 
“rough places shall be made plain,” although Nature 
provides her own protection to the soles of feet which 
are habitually bare, by thickening the skin. The 
skin of the habitually barefooted Irish lassie varies, 
we are told, from a quarter to half an inch in thick¬ 
ness, and even more. 

The sandal, then, may be considered as the pre¬ 
cursor of the shoe. Most of the early nations wore 
sandals. The Egyptians, however, were usually bare¬ 
footed, with the exception of the priests, who wore 
shoes of by bins, and were not permitted to wear any 
other. The Greek sandal consisted of a strip of thick 

house. Hence the saying, “ A shoemaker’s son is born a 
Prince.” From their high lineage, shoemaking is named 
“ The Gentle Craft.” 

“ I am of Crispin’s trade, a brave Shooemaker, 

He loved a Princess dear, and ne’r forsak’t her. . . . 

This craft was never held in scorn. Sir Thomas Eyer 
did it adorn, 

A Shoemaker’s son a Prince is born.” 

Roxbiirghe Ballads. 


284 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


hide, tanned or untanned, for the sole, with a thinner 
piece, assuming some ornamental form, upon the 
instep, the whole connected or drawn together with 
straps drawn crosswise over the instep and round 
the ankle, or a cord or thong passing between the 
great toe and the first of the smaller toes. 

Sandals were worn either with bare feet or with 
stockings or hose, in which case a division of the 
stocking would be necessary between the great and 
little toes. Some modern hygienic reformers have, 
indeed, recommended toed stockings for present use, 
2>., stockings provided with a separate receptacle for 
each toe, like the fingers of a glove, to be worn even 
with the modern shoe or boot, on the ground of 
healthiness, and this would seem to be reasonable, 
since the objectionable condition of the skin between 
the toes, which no amount of cleanliness and care can 
wholly avert, is due to the inability of the perspira¬ 
tion to escape when the surfaces are in contact. “ The 
interposition in the five-toed socks of a layer of 
woollen or other material between each toe absorbs 
the perspiration and rapidly effects a remarkable 
change. The skin between the toes becomes' dry 
and wholesome, and the squeezed, crippled appearance 
of the toes greatly alters for the better.” ^ 

Both the Greeks and Romans wore buskins, which 
reached to about the middle of the calf. These were 
variously ornamented and laced, and were usually 
lined with the skins of the smaller animals, the heads 
and claws being allowed to fall over the top by way 
of ornament. Buskins have, as a matter of fact, been 
' “ Health Culture,’* G. Jaeger, M.D. 



ROMAN SANDALS. 

Hope^s '•^Costume of the Ancients. 



























































286 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


worn at all periods; several examples are given, 
notably in the portraits by Vandyke, of Lords John 
and Bernard Stuart (p. 287). 

The footgear of the Italian peasant of the present 
day may be considered as the most primitive form of 
sandal. It consists of a simple oblong piece of thick 

leather, perforated 
at the sides and 
ends to allow of 
straps being drawn 
through, crosswise 
over the instep and 
round the ankle, 
and half way up 
the leg, to the knee, 
either in circular 
bands or crosswise, 
the foot and leg 
being encased in a 
more or less loose 
stocking or hose, in 
many instances the 
whole of the leg 
being cross gar¬ 
tered. 

SANDALS OF THE ITALIAN PEASANTRY. 

wore a shoe which was almost as simple in con¬ 
struction as the last mentioned. It consisted of a 
piece of raw cowhide, with a leather thong fastened 
at the heel, threaded along the upper edge, drawing 
the shoe like a purse over the foot. This form of 
shoe, however, was not confined to the early Britons, 





LORDS JOHN AND BERNARD STUART 

Engraved by James Mn(CL7‘dell, 





288 


CHATS ON COSTUME 


but was adopted by most primitive peoples a^ dif¬ 
ferent periods; in fact, it is the first and readiest 
method of covering the feet which would occur to 
the primitive mind. 

The Anglo-Saxon shoe was provided with long 
thongs of leather or other material attached to the 
shoe at the ankles and wound crosswise round the leg 
to the knee, or round the whole of the leg to the 
middle, always, however, with some form of hose. 
This fashion obtained, more or less, during the whole 
of the Anglo-Saxon period, an'd was common to 
most of the Northern nations. 

During the reign of William the Conqueror, short 
boots reaching above the ankle, with a plain band 
round the tops, prevailed. Robert, Duke of Nor¬ 
mandy, eldest son of the Conqueror, who died in 1134, 
was called “Curta Ocrea,” or Short Boots, either from 
his setting the fashion or from retaining it when 
abandoned by the beaux of the day. 

The usual footgear of the period, however, is the 
close shoe, made of cloth, velvet, leather, or other 
material, and terminating in a point. From this 
period for more than a century onward, shoes varied 
very little, except in the character of their ornamen¬ 
tation. 

During the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., 
a kind of loose top-boot appeared. These boots 
resembled loose socks or galoches, drawn over the 
hose, sometimes reaching as high as the knee, and 
occasionally to the middle of the thigh, but more often 
half way up the leg only. They were worn in various 
forms by all classes, and by the common people 


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